134 COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



It proved to be a branch of the Salvation Army, 

 drumming up recruits. 



A class of people, who find ready dupes almost all 

 over the world, are the so-called spiritual mediums, 

 and Brisbane seemed to be well supplied with them. 

 One old fellow, who looked as if he had been blown 

 up with gunpowder, thus losing part of himself, used 

 to come to the hotel quite often to see us. Knowing 

 that father was a spiritualist, he naturally supposed 

 Shelley and I were. He would tell us about the visions 

 he had seen, and the wonderful things the spirits had 

 done through him. I thought, in this case, the spirits 

 were rather unfortunate in their choice of an interpre- 

 ter ; perhaps his very ugliness served as an attraction 

 to them, but it had the opposite effect on us. We 

 became so tired of him, that one day, when he came 

 in and wanted to shake hands all round, Shelley ran 

 round to the other side of the table, saying, 



" No, I'll be damned if I'll shake hands with you ! " 



It was some time before it dawned upon our friend 

 that this was not some huge American joke ; then he 

 bolted for the door, leaving me in such a paroxysm of 

 laughter that I was unable to bid him good-by. 



It was a relief to get out into the fields and woods 

 once more ; to hear the birds singing, and breathe the 

 perfumes from the flowers. I used to wonder how any 

 one could be dissatisfied with this wonderful world,so 

 full of all that is beautiful and interesting. 



