It seems to me that these sorts of characters were central to how Twain saw the world from a 19th century small, rural American town perspective. Hucksters, quacks and cheats had their particular attractiveness and appeal to young boys, and no doubt to many girls as well. They contain the sort of spookiness that children are both scared of and attracted to at the same time. The more colorful, fanciful, or unbelievable the character the better. These sorts of characters did in fact appear from time-to-time in small towns, both announced and unannounced, and they relied on and employed the imagination of others and also their gullibility to their advantage. Twain was not introducing something new to the times but its clearly hard currency for literary application. I am sure there must be contemporary examples but none come to mind straight off at the moment. Its too bad we no longer see many wandering mistrals or small circuses. The Internet and cable TV are probably to blame, and our generally modernized and mobile lifestyles. We are no longer captive audiences waiting for something novel to appear in our neighborhood to relieve us of our money and boredom. Steve Crawford Kulttuuriala, School of Cultural Studies Jyväskylän ammattikorkeakoulu Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences Pitkäkatu 18-22, FI-40700 Jyväskylä FINLAND