Nor were the arts wholly neglected. One man, who was
proud of his voice, thought he would like to take singing lessons.
An emissary was sent to Boston to bring back the best teacher he
could find. The teacher came with a method of placing the voice by
trying to say "Come!" at the base of the nose and between the
eyes. This was with the lips closed. He charged two dollars per
half hour for this effort, he had each pupil try it twice for half
an hour each day, and for six weeks the town was humming like a
beehive. At the end of that period, the teacher fell ill and went
his way with a fat pocket-book and not a warbling soul had got the
chance to open his mouth. The experience dampened nobody.
Generosity was limitless. It was equally easy to raise money for a
roulette wheel, a cathedral or an expedition to Africa. And even
yet the railroad was miles away and even yet in February, the
Improvement Company had a great land sale. The day before it,
competing purchasers had deposited cheques aggregating three times
the sum asked for by the company for the land. So the buyers spent
the night organizing a pool to keep down competition and drawing
lots for the privilege of bidding.
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