The tent was pitched, the museum was arranged for an afternoon performance, and the unrivalled showman, to whose enterprise Rabbit owed this chance of improving its mind and enlivening its leisure, took his stand outside, and endeavoured to awaken the township to a sense of its opportunities.
For three-quarters of an hour he poured forth a stream of eloquence at the top of his pitch.

After the first quarter of an hour he was appreciated by a tired dog, which drifted up, and barked at him in a desultory way.

Later, he was becoming discouraged when a tattered youth, wearing a hat that nearly engulfed him, came and stared at him open-mouthed, stupidly, silently, for twenty minutes.

This youth was the township idiot.

Nobody else troubled to come out and see what all the noise was about.
"We're got to shake up the township, Nickie," Thunder said.
"Well, go out and shake it, Professor--I'm tired." "No, Nickie, you've got to do the shaking.