Queering a Dun
A Cambridge wag who was skilled in the science of electricity, as well as in the art of ticking, having got in pretty deep with his tailor, who was continually dunning him for payment, resolved to give snip “a settler,” as he said, the next time he mounted his stairs. He accordingly charged his electrifying machine much deeper than usual, and knowing pretty well the time of snip’s approach, watched his coming to the foot of the stairs where he kept, and ere he could reach the door, fixed the conductor to the brass handle. The tailor having long in vain sought occasion to catch him with his outer door not sported, was so delighted at finding it so, that, resolving not to lose time, he seized the handle of the inner door, so temptingly exposed to view, determining to introduce himself to his creditor sans ceremonie. No sooner, however, did his fingers come in contact with it than the shock followed, so violent, that it stunned him for an instant: but recovering himself, he bolted as though followed, as the poet says, by “ten thousand devils,” never again to return.