THE EARLY COCK
THE AFFAIR AT THE POULTRY-SHOW
THE SHERIFF IS MAD
MR. SMITH'S GRIEF
A SCARED FAMILY
DR. SLUGG'S INVENTION
JOE MIDDLES
A COURT SCENE
A DOG FOR SALE
SMITH'S BOY RETREATS
BANG!!!
THE WANDERING JEW
SIMPSON'S CASE
THE GENERAL IN A RAGE
"TAKE HER, YOUNG MAN!"
BRADLEY'S CRADLE
THE NEW MOTOR
A QUEER PLANT
TOO MUCH OF A BORE.
BALLAST
MAJOR SLOTT'S TIGER
FACING THE TIGER

CHAPTER I.

PROLOGUE.

_THE ADVANTAGES OF ELBOW-ROOM_.

The professors of sociology, in exploring the mysteries of the science
of human living, have not agreed that elbow-room is one of the great
needs of modern civilized society, but this may be because they have
not yet reached the bottom of things and discovered the truth. In
crowded communities men have chances of development in certain
directions, but in others their growth is surely checked. A man who
lives in a large city is apt to experience a sharpening of his wits,
for attrition of minds as well as of pebbles produces polish and
brilliancy; but perhaps this very process prevents the free unfolding
of parts of his character. If his individuality is not partially lost
amid the crowd, it is likely that, first, his imitative faculty will
induce him to shape himself in accordance with another than his own
pattern, and that, second, the dread of the conspicuousness which is
the certain result of eccentricity will persuade him to avoid any
tendency he may have to become strongly unlike his neighbors.

The house that he lives in is tightly squeezed in a row of dwellings
builded upon a precisely similar plan, so that the influence brought
to bear upon him by the home resembles to some extent that which
operates upon his fellows. There is a pressure upon both sides of
him in the house; and when he plunges into business, there is a far
greater pressure there, in the shape of sharp competition, which
brings him into constant collision with other men, and mayhap drives
him or compels him to drive his weaker rival to the wall.

The city-man is likely to cover himself with a mantle of reserve and
dissimulation. If he has a longing to wander in untrodden and devious
paths, he is disposed resolutely to suppress his desire and to go in
the beaten track. If Smith, in a savage state, would certainly conduct
himself in a wholly original manner, in a social condition he yields
to an inevitable apprehension that Jones will think queer