It was like a riot, an insurrection; it was an intolerable volume of noise.

Presently I said to the lady next me-- "I will subdue this riot, I will silence this racket.

There is only one way to do it, but I know the art.

You must tilt your head toward mine and seem to be deeply interested in what I am saying; I will talk in a low voice; then, just because our neighbors won't be able to hear me, they will _want_ to hear me.

If I mumble long enough--say two minutes--you will see that the dialogues will one after another come to a standstill, and there will be silence, not a sound anywhere but my mumbling." Then in a very low voice I began: "When I went out to Chicago, eleven years ago, to witness the Grant festivities, there was a great banquet on the first night, with six hundred ex-soldiers present.