out of plumb by a direction backward-in the self-complacent air with which he shall tap his polished boots with his walkingcane-in his whole bearing, in short, shall be exhibited a most comfortable persuasion of his own importance: why then, reader, I would wager great odds that you shall have had the honor of falling in with my most respectable friend, Triptolemus Tub.
None other, reader, depend upon it, for nature never made two Triptolemus Tubs, of precisely the same length, breadth, and thickness: she never inflated another mass of corporiety with precisely the same quantum of the gas of self-esteem, nor encased she ever another conscience in so invulnerable a pericardium of obtusity. No, I am a believer in nature's omnipotence in everything but the making of two Triptolemus Tubs, and therefore, reader, shouldst thou chance to meet with the personage described, "put off the shoes from off thy feet," for he will be bound to be the veritable Triptolemus himself and none other.
Mr. Tub lives on the Virginian shore of