New Jersey, then Pennsylvania, then the West--those
were the great topographical features of his campaign.
For his initiatory performance, he had chosen a quiet little town less
than thirty miles from the city, on a line of railway. If his panorama
was to be a hopeless failure at the very outset, Tiffles wanted to be
within striking distance of New York. He was sanguine of success; but,
like a prudent general, he looked after his lines of retreat.
To this small town in New Jersey, with which the fate of the great
enterprise was to be indissolubly linked, Tiffles had sent a large stock
of posters and handbills. He had previously corresponded (free of
expense both ways) with that universal business man of every American
village, the postmaster, and, through him, had engaged Washington
Hall--the largest hall in the place, capable of holding six hundred
people--at five dollars for one night, with the refusal of two
nights more.
The name of the hall and the night of exhibition were written in blank
spaces on the posters and handbills with red chalk, in a fine commercial
hand, by Tiffles himself; and, for a small consideration, the postmaster
had agreed to stick up the posters on every corner; also on the post
office and the three town pumps; and to distribute the handbills in
every house.
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