Naturally of a knightly fiber, this queer man has no sooner established
himself in command of the port of Chicago than he has found his dearest
dreams realized. To become the ornament of the sailor's fraternity is
but to go up and down the docks, drinking the whisky which comes in
free from Canada and sneezing.

"We steer toward Corkey's sneeze," the sailors declare.

To produce the greatest sneeze that was ever heard in the valley of the
Mississippi, give us, then, a man who is called a "sawed-off" by those
who love him--a very thick, very short, very tobaccofied, strong man in
cavalry pants, with a jacket of the heaviest chinchilla--a restless,
oathful, laconic, thirsty, never-drunk "editor." It is a man after the
sailor's own heart. It is a man, too, well known to the gamblers, and
they all vote in Lockwin's district.

Parlor entertainers make a famous sneeze by delegating to each of a
group some vowel in the word "h--sh!" It shall be "hash" for this one,
"hish" for that one, "hush" for still another, and so on. Then the
professor counts three, at which all yell together, and the
consolidated sound is a sneeze.

In a chorus the leader may tell you one singer is worth all the rest.
So, if Corkey were in this parlor, and should render one unforeseen,
unpremeditated sneeze, you would not know the parlorful had sneezed
along with him. Corkey's sneeze is unapproachable, unrivaled, hated,
feared, admired, reverenced. The devout say "God bless you!" with deep
unction. The adventurous declare that such a sneeze would buckle the
cabin-floor of a steamer like a wave in the trough of the sea.