Just after the war many of the Southern people regarded a "Yankee" as
an unending wonder. They had heard so much of Yankee ingenuity that
they came to regard a Northerner as a curiosity. We conceived the
scheme of utilizing our knowledge of this fact to swell our receipts.
We advertised that we had with our show a number of Yankees from
various States. The crier dilated upon the wonderful ingenuity of the
Yankee and told the people that if they had any old clocks or other
things which needed fixing that they might bring them and watch the
Yankees fix them. Our first attempt to put this scheme into operation
turned out somewhat disastrously. It was Saturday and the people
flocked to see the Yankees. When they saw, however, that Yankees are a
good deal like other people we narrowly escaped a riot. The attaches of
our show got into trouble with the quarrelsome element of the crowd and
ended by boasting that they were all Yankees. Only by the exercise of
great diplomacy was a combat avoided.