From the portrait in the possession of the family]

Dr. Bagby studied for his profession at the Medical College of the
University of Pennsylvania and from there went to Lynchburg, opening
an office where now stands the opera house. Unfortunately for his
professional career but happily for the cause of the literature of
Virginia life, the office of the _Lynchburg Virginian_ was near, and
its editor, Mr. James McDonald, proved a kindred soul to the young
physician. In the absences of the editor, Dr. Bagby filled his chair
and fell a victim to the fascination with which the Demon of the
Fourth Estate lures his chosen to their doom. In Lynchburg he first
found his true calling and there, too, he met with his first failure,
the demise of the _Lynchburg Express_, of which he was part owner, and
which went to the wall by reason of the well-known weakness of genius
in regard to business matters.

Upon the collapse of the _Express_ Dr. Bagby went to Washington as
correspondent for a number of papers, and while there attained
distinction as a humorist through the "Letters of Mozis Addums,"
written for the _Southern Literary Messenger_, of Richmond.

His abiding place is of hazy uncertainty, one of his kinsmen
saying--"He didn't live anywhere," He might as well have dwelt in his
own "Hobgoblinopolis." His wanderings had taught him the peculiar
charm of the Virginia roads of that day, as evidenced by the
aspiration of "Mozis Addums" when contemplating the limitations of his
"Fifty Millions":

I want to give Virginia a perfect system of county roads, so that
one may get off at a station and go to the nearest country-house