Harris always looks trim and prosperous. Let us follow him as he approaches the manager of the Belleville Opera House, who is, incidentally, proprietor of the store next door and who also handles real estate and is treasurer of the village. He is an important personage -in Belleville! In some good sized town he wouldn't amount to a great deal, but in Belleville he must be treated with all due respect.

"Mr. Andrews, I believe?" says Harris, approaching that worthy as he warms his hands at the store stove.

"Yes, sir," replies Mr. Andrews in a slow but certain tone, "what can I do for you?"

"I am," returns the mighty Harris, handing the town mogul his card, "J. W. Harris, Business Manager of Prof. Zendure, the Egyptian Hypnotist".

Here Mr. Andrews looks toward the floor in a deep study, clearing his throat once or twice before he ventures to speak on a subject of this nature.

"Yes, I see," he says. "You want to make arrangements fur the hall".

"Just so," replies Mr. Harris.

"Well, I can't say as to that. When would you want it?"

"On Dec 7," Mr. Harris informs him.

Then follows a long discussion on the merits of the show and the hall. Once or twice Mr. Andrews comes out of his Belleville lethargy and evinces an interest. The contract is finally signed for the seventh of December in Belleville. The hall will cost us $15. The town has a population of thirty-three hundred. We could make a two nights' stand there, but we are after all we can get the first night and then jump into our next town, a place of seven thousand, where we are billed fur a week.

THE PEDDLERS.

I assume that this is the way Mr. Andrews and Mr. Harris acted. At least, I am going to take Belleville as the typical country town and carry you, reader, with me through the whole thing, from the time we reach the town until the entertainment has been finished.

We will be there the day before the exhibition. This is to give us the benefit of the advertising schemes. Mr. Harris is with me now. The casket is always sent on ahead by express so that the manager of the opera house will have an opportunity of putting it in place in a store window - drug stores are the usual ones. Of course, Mr. Andrews will not do this work himself but some one else will do it for him.

From the time the paper was put on the boards three weeks before, the town has been talking about this wonderful hypnotic exhibition. The usual, "I'll bet he can't hypnotize me," or "I ain't going to look in his eyes," or "Pooh! Who's afraid!" has been wafted about the street corners for these many days. The deep eyed, sallow youth has been thinking. Maybe someday he can be a hypnotist; perhaps he can appear on the stage. Why, he never sees the inside of that opera house except when there is a show there and he is down in front or up in the back, according to his pocketbook! He is silent and filled with wonder. He wants to know what a life of that kind is. He builds his aspirations there; no higher. He thinks of only the little country towns. He has seen Belleville and a few other places equally as large. He has never let his thoughts drift to the wide world beyond. The word "city" implies nothing to him greater than Belleville! He never tries to imagine anything greater than the power of Mr. Andrews. The President himself falls into dark oblivion in comparison to this wonder, the town boss, Mr. Andrews, arid even he cannot equal in grandeur the mighty hypnotist !

Then there is the light headed girl, the dizzy maid, as it were, who giggles and says that "Ain't it funny how all these things are did, te he he!" And there is the wise young man who stands around the streets if the weather isn't cold, and inside if it is, and talks out of the cornets of his mouth and tells why things are; why they happened as they did, etc. He gives quotations on the hypnotic market and tells that it is the powerful force of a strong mind directed against the unsuspecting weaker will; that the result cannot be otherwise. The weaker mind gives 'way. It is a crime - if he sees no prospects of getting in free -and it is a science if he sees that he can get a seat!

Then, to be exact, there is Mrs. Hiram Hicks, who says that this hypnotizing show is one of the worst evils that ever occurred. She solemnly avers that it is black and a part of the devil's arsenal. And the long-faced, angular old maid of the village. Miss Amelia Green - mark you, Miss! - agrees that it is "just scandelous!"

So the story goes. Some have discussed the things attributed to me freely. Others have passed them by and - thought. There has been a difference of opinions. I am at the same time held up as a benefactor and denounced as a fraud. I have advertised only what I can do: what any hypnotist would pass by without further comment and yet, Belleville doubts!

But right in this one fact I have gained the object of my advertising - or, rather, Harris' advertising. The people are looking for me, they eagerly expect me, no matter what they may say.

Tonight will be a big night in Belleville. The train has rolled out of Sanderton and in an hour-and-a-half we will be at Belleville. You are then, readers and students, with me for the rest of the two days, or until I have finished my engagement of one night in Belleville!

Harris and I sit in the smoker. So do the boys - Albert and Harry.

We filled a two nights' bill at Sanderton. There were several traveling men there and we got them in and they have gone to various points. Sanderton is larger than Belleville. We did well there, came out with $125 above all expenses, which is not so very bad after all.

Harris and I are figuring on seasons to follow. It is a strange thing, but the mind of the aspiring man never dwells wholly in the present. He sees and hears and acts. He enjoys or regrets, but he looks ever ahead. It is better, to be sure, than always looking back unless there is a brighter lesson in the past than we can see in the immediate future. Maybe Harris and I are too confident at times. But our five hundred apiece have already been returned to the treasury and so have seven hundred more! We are making money and we are saving it, too. We will, perhaps, go one way or another next season. Or we may go to Atlantic City for a month, or here or there.