26 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



down to read a newspaper sheet whose fabric, a week before, was 

 of cellar ropes, and which, whilst he was that morning playing 

 the part of the Proverb-sluggard, had been born in one hour, with 

 ten thousand brethren, over the Hoe press ! 



Soon, preparing for the rainy day, he buttons about him an 

 India-rubber coat — 



"No matter whose — when will the controversy end, yon say ? 

 Not 'til at least have passed a ' Good-year ' and a ' Day.' " 



Adjusting his gutta-percha soles, he walks noiselessly through his 

 hall of Vermont tile, with the walls white from new applications 

 of the liquified quartz, to turn the safety-lock of the front door 

 that is closed by operation of an invisible spring. Or, he enters 

 his Concord buggy, pulling over his knees the lap robe that suc- 

 cessfully imitates the skin of the leopard, to be driven over streets 

 that a combination of mechanical skill has swept over night. Or, 

 he hails the omnibus, with the patent step ; or beckons to the car 

 with the last ventilation and the passenger ' registration,' that 

 passengers of all politics agree to be perfectly constitutional. 



Arrived at his place of business, a new stove glows honest wel- 

 come in his office (and thanks to the new ash-sifter, no gas to-day). 

 Paper weights, poetical with art-tracery, confine the morning's 

 mail of epistles, covered by adhesive envelopes of the invisible 

 ruling. His penmanship is confused with the stock of patent 

 pens, and patent pencils, and patent inkstands. As the corres- 

 pondence is answered, a copying press preserves it for after years 

 of reference, and the epistle from abroad sleeps between the sheets 

 of the gumarabic letter book. His ledgers, ruled by machinery, 

 invite his inspection with their flexible backs. Payments enter 

 the money-drawer in bills, whose colorable devices laugh the coun- 

 terfeiter's arts to scorn. Seated in rotatory office chairs, he holds 

 electrical converse with distant correspondents over the exchanges 

 of a dozen cities. 



Walking homeward to the dinner, he hears a cry of fire. He 

 laughs, as he thinks of the steam engine on the next block, and 

 thinks he will get up a new insurance company, by way of relaxa- 

 tion. Relaxation and fire bring thoughts of the juveniles at 

 home, and of the promised presents ; so, entering some ^ National 

 Bazaar,' he heaves a sigh over the toy-barrenness of his boyhood, 

 and grows distracted amid the philosophical trinkets. He enters 

 the domestic circle, to hear the grateful music of the sewing ma- 

 chine, over whose purchase were held thirty family councils, cor- 

 responding to the numeral choice. Beside it sits grandmama, 



