ILLUSTRATIONS.

  Elbow-room
  Mr. Fogg as A mesmerist
  A novel mousetrap
  A perplexed mule
  the secretary is alarmed
  Mr. Butterwick’s horse lies down
  the battle of cannae. 
  Mr. Barnes proposes
  the carbolic door-mat
  the gardener retreats
  treading water
  the heathen clothe themselves
  the judge’s cow
  A tombstone contract
  Mr. Potts’ mouse
  shooting A burglar
  A flat-iron wedding
  an excited old lady
  the cat succumbs
  how the pig was killed
  Mr. Spooner is alarmed
  the little baby-bear
  the goldfish trick. 
  A curtailment
  an indignant gunner
  confessing their faults
  forced to do duty
  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.