THE HEN FBVBK. 211 



ter. You need n't — no — we. won't say anything about it. 

 It 's all right. You '11 do. You can run alone, I guess. 

 / believe I doiit spell my name tight ! Good-by — good- 

 by." 



I have n't seen friend Barnum since. 



At this exhibition of poultry I managed to show a pair 

 of my pure-bred Suffolk pigs, too, which did not set me 

 back any. I took numerous orders for these animals, and I 

 have given on page 174 what passes for a likeness of a 

 fancy ■' Shanghae " fowl, such as we " read of in the news- 

 papers," and which everybody, during the last five years, 

 imagined he was buying, when he ordered " such," after 

 seeing the " pictur'." 



In this class of illustration, there was • quite as much 

 deceit and chicanery practised, commonly, as in any part of 

 the general system of the humbug. The uninitiated saw 

 the well-rounded forms of the huge fowls or hogs he sought, 

 in his weekly agricultural journal, from time to time ; and, 

 through the same channel, he met with " portraits," repre- 

 sented to have had originals at some time or other, and 

 which were said to be in the possession of this or that 

 breeder, who ' ' had been induced, after earnest solicitation, 

 to part, with a very few choice samples," out of such imag- 

 inary, stock. With the swine, the thicker the ham, the 

 smaller the feet, the shorter the: nose, and the thinner the 



