FAST DAY SERMON BEVIBTTED. gl' 



— hard breathing, I mean, the precursor of a sound sleep 



— but no such announcement came ! I read on, and on, 

 internipted occasionally by a quiet smile, until the gas-light 

 in my chamber mingled with the soft beams of the morning 



— on and on, until the faint and far-off sounds -which herald 

 the waking up of the city came near and more near, finally 

 merging into earnest and active life — until the milk-carts 

 rattled, and tlie organ-grinders were at their work — in 

 fact, till the last word of the last, last page made me wish 

 there were a few more left of the same sort to breakfast 

 upon. That Burnham has achieved a triumph in the way 

 of humorous literature, the rapid sale of his book is ample 

 proof; that he is entitled to the thanks of the multitude, 

 many a reader, who has read his way out of an ocean of 

 'blues,' will readily admit; and that he has my sincere 

 thanks, no less for the courtesy shown me in the presenta- 

 tion copy, than for the amusement its perusal occasioned, he 

 can no more doubt than he can doubt the success of his 

 popular work." 



Mitchell's New York Citizen contends, that, " with all 

 their reputation for shrewdness, there is no people, perhaps, 

 on the face of the earth, so easily humbugged as Yankees. 

 Certain it is that in Yankeedom alone is the profession of 

 humbug respectable. The most notorious example of this 

 is Barnum's Autobiography, in which he describes the 

 various humbugs he had practised on the people of the 

 northern states — tells not only of their gullibility, but of 

 their love of being gulled, provided it is done in a scientific 

 manner. One striking feature that exhibited itself in the 

 midst of this mania was the fact that among the leading 



