uch
so, indeed, as the peasants or contadini, who bought his vials and
pillboxes without stint--I became interested to know the main features
of his life; and, by the aid of a friend, got some clues which I think
reliable enough to publish. I do so the more willingly, because his
career is illustrative, after an odd fashion, of contemporary Italian
life.

He was the son of a small farmer, not far from Sienna, and grew up in
daily contact with vine-dressers and olive-gatherers, living upon the
hard Tuscan fare of macaroni and maroon-nuts, with a cutlet of lean
mutton once a day, and a pint of sour Tuscan wine. Being tolerably well
educated for a peasant-boy, he imbibed a desire for the profession of an
actor, and studied Alfieri closely.

Some little notoriety that he gained by recitations led him, in an evil
hour, to venture an appearance _en grand role_, in Florence, at a
third-rate theatre. His father had meanwhile deceased and left him the
property; but to make the debut referred to, he sold almost his entire
inheritance. As may be supposed, his failure was signal. However easy he
had found it to amuse the rough, untutored peasantry of his
neighborhood, the test of a large and polished city was beyond his
merit.

So, poor and abashed, he sank to the lower walks of dramatic art,
singing in choruses at the opera, playing minor parts in show-pieces,
and all the while feeling the sting of disappointed ambition and
half-deserved penury.

One day found him, at the beginning of winter, without work, and without
a soldo in his pocket. Passing a druggist's shop, he saw a placard
asking for men to sell a certain new preparation. The druggist advanced
him a small sum for travelling expenses, and he took to peripatetic
lectures at once, going into the country and haranguing at all the
villages.

Here he found his dramatic education available. Though not good enough
for an actor, he was sufficiently clever for a nomadic eulogizer of a
patent-medicine. His vocal abilities were also of service to him in
gathering the people together. The great secret of success in anything
is to get a hearing. Half the object is gained when the audience is
assembled.

Well! poor, vagabond, peddling Christopher Risk, selling so much for
another party, conceived the idea of becoming his own capitalist. He
resolved to prepare a medicine of his own; and, profiting by the
assistance of a young medical student, obtained bona fide prescriptions