B934 <=> B936 [BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 935]

“’All you have to do is just to bear in mind the said hot potato and . . . no more “boloney” about it.

“’I guarantee this secret, and I can safely say that if, on exactly following my advice, your “language” here does not prove to be ideal, then you may stop your subscription.’

“Several days later, I had to go to the city of Chicago.

“This city is the second in size on that continent and is, as it were, a second capital of ‘North America.’

“On seeing me off for Chicago, that Mister, my New York acquaintance, gave me a letter of introduction to a certain Mister there.

“As soon as I arrived in this city Chicago, I went straight to this said Mister.

“This Chicago Mister turned out to be very amiable and most obliging.

“His name was ‘Mister Bellybutton.’

“For the evening of the first day, this amiable and obliging Mr. Bellybutton suggested my accompanying him to the house of some of his friends so that, as he expressed it, I should ‘not be bored’ in a quite strange city.

“I, of course, agreed.

“When we arrived, we found there a fair number of young American beings, guests like ourselves.

“All the guests were exceedingly gay and very ‘merry.’

“They were telling ‘funny stories’ in turn and the laughter from these stories of theirs lingered in the room like the smoke on a day when the wind is south over the chimneys of the American factories where the American sausages called ‘hot dogs’ are prepared.

“As I also find funny stories amusing, that first evening of mine in the city of Chicago passed very gaily indeed.

“All this would have been quite sensible and very delightful, if it had not been for one ‘feature’ of the stories told that first evening, which greatly astonished and perplexed me.