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and Fanny were in the middle of the
audience � as we heard, not seeing them.
We sat in front.   Perhaps five or six hundred
persons present.    Mort has been dandified to
extremity by the women, sported a trim suit
of black and such a tie to his cravat that
Mattie whispered an inquiry to �wonder� as
to its origin.     It wasn�t feminine and it was
n�t masculine so it must have been Ed Wells�
doing, I said, getting a laugh for my libel.
(He really does such services for Mort.)     The
only good thing in the lecture was about Old
Brown � Ossawattamie Brown � which moved
Haney and I to applause to which Mort owed
More than half of his success.    For their were
some hisses heard on Old Brown�s introduc-
tion, and we were determined to have him em-
phatically recognized.  And we did it.     The
contest was quite exciting for awhile.   I had
two hissers beside me, another behind.     Finally
we triumphed.     Most of the lecture was awful
bosh, old puns, old stale satire, irrele-
vance and what not, with here and there
a bit of strong truth, but nothing that hasn�t been
said a hundred times better.    Haney hung
down his head and laughed silently sometimes,
I looked on amused and cynical, Matty laughed
when the people laughed, settled her bonnet-ribbons,