who has paid twenty-five dollars for his whistle is apt to blow it louder
and longer than other people. So it appeared that when the "Perkinean
Society" applied to the possessors of Tractors in the metropolis to
concur in the establishment of a public institution for the use of these
instruments upon the poor, "it was found that only five out of above a
hundred objected to subscribe, on account of their want of confidence in
the efficacy of the practice; and these," the committee observes, "there
is reason to believe, never gave them a fair trial, probably never used
them in more than one case, and that perhaps a case in which the Tractors
had never been recommended as serviceable." "Purchasers of the
Tractors," said one of their ardent advocates, "would be among the last
to approve of them if they had reason to suppose themselves defrauded of
five guineas." He forgot poor Moses, with his "gross of green
spectacles, with silver rims and shagreen cases." "Dear mother," cried
the boy, "why won't you listen to reason? I had them a dead bargain, or
I should not have bought them. The silver rims alone will sell for
double the money."

But it is an undeniable fact, that many persons of considerable standing,
and in some instances holding the most elevated positions in society,
openly patronized the new practice. In a translation of a work entitled
"Experiments with the Metallic Tractors," originally published in Danish,
thence rendered successively into German and English, Mr. Benjamin
Perkins, who edited the English edition, has given a copious enumeration
of the distinguished individuals, both in America and Europe, whose
patronage he enjoyed. He goes so far as to signify that ROYALTY itself
was to be included among the number. When the Perkinean Institution was
founded, no less a person than Lord Rivers was elected President, and
eleven other individuals of distinction, among them Governor Franklin,
son of Dr. Franklin, figured as Vice-Presidents. Lord Henniker, a member