DO MEN THINK ? 99 



was a panic; the office, barber-shop, and bar-room 

 were empty and the terror stricken customers were 

 fleeing from what they thought to be a house fall- 

 ing about their ears. 



The first Chinese dinner-gong used for a dinner 

 call at Memphis, Tennessee, not only 



STAMPEDED ALL THE OX-TEAMS 



within hearing, but the planters and negroes as 

 well. The oxen threw up their heads and bel- 

 lowed, the negroes showing the whites of their 

 eyes, jumped to their feet, and the languid planters 

 vied with their slaves and animals in fleeing down 

 the streets to escape the shapeless horror which 

 pursued them. 



As soon as experience taught the men that this 

 sound meant food, they welcomed it with glad 

 smiles and no fear. As soon as experience taught 

 the oxen and negroes that no danger lurked in the 

 sound of the dinner-gong, fear vanished from 

 among them and thereafter when the gong sounded 

 the planters strolled to the dining-room, the 

 negroes lounged around, the oxen calmly chewed 

 their cuds and paid no heed to the clamor. The 

 same sort of sound might stampede a sloth of 

 bears, a route of wolves, or a clowder of wild cats, 

 or a herd of elk, but if no harm accompanied the 

 sound, these animals, like the planters, negroes and 

 oxen would soon learn not to be frightened. 



To understand properly the living creatures of 

 this world we must 



