Did anyone hear of it before 1868 when she gave it to our anecdote class?
I believe this was the foundation or starter for similar skillet-trumpet stories.
The girl was applauded, and deserved it.

Then they asked me for a milk story.

I told them of a milkman who, in answer to a young mother's complaint that the milk he brought for her baby was sour, replied: "Well, is there anything outside the sourness that doesn't suit you ?" And Thoreau remarked that "circumstantial evidence is sometimes conclusive, as when a trout is found in the morning milk." This class was considered so practical and valuable that I was offered pay for it, but it was a relief, after exhausting work.
We had many visitors interested in the work of the various classes.
One day Beecher strolled into the chapel and wished to hear some of the girls read.

All were ready.

One took the morning paper; another recited a poem; one read a selection from her scrapbook.