FAST DAY SERMON REVIEWED. 23 



Such are a few voluntary opinions, in different quarters, 

 taken from among several hundred favorable criticisms of 

 the "History of the Hen Fever," and which speak for 

 thfemselves, malgri the charges of the reverend Mr. Hunt- 

 ington. At least, these opinions are vastly at variance with 

 his own. 



In the volume thus assailed I have given facts as they 

 occurred, in the main, with but slight attempts at sketches 

 of "fancy ; " and if the statements thus set down surpass 

 what I should have dared to invent (had I been engaged on 

 a work of fiction, merely), the fault is not mine, but rather 

 in the realities that have existed. I have been compelled 

 to take the World as I have found it. Had it been within 

 my power, I. would have painted the enormities of the 

 poultry mania as a delicious dream, or as something quite 

 paradisiacal in its nature and its incidents, with which my 

 reverend critic would have undoubtedly been highly pleased ; 

 or, at least, not so e?jspleased with as to have made my 

 humble "History" a chief subject for his sermon on that 

 day which is comraonly, set apart for the consideration of 

 the " great " public sins of the people. 



It is because I have told the truth, perhaps, at times, in 

 a tone of persiflage, that the worthy clergyman has thus 

 thought proper to arraign me before the public as a most 

 pertinent illustration in his sermon on lying ; whereas, had 

 I really lied in this " History," he would very likely have 

 thought of nothing of the kind. The reverend Mr. Hun- 

 tington should deal with human nature, — the reformation 

 of which he is expected to seek, — and not with me, who 

 have only placed before, the world the facts that show, in a 



