You Can Search Me

With a wedding seven weeks away and much of his savings lost at the racetrack, Bunch Jefferson turns to his friend John Henry. John has money troubles of his own after a failed investment threatens his promised payment on a new home. His proposed solution is to finance a touring illusionist, Signor Beppo Petroskinski, whose tricks he regards as a certain route to profit. George V. Hobart builds You Can Search Me around this collision of financial anxiety and cheerful overconfidence.

The comedy comes through John's first-person account, crowded with slang, exaggerated comparisons and rapid arguments. An expensive restaurant becomes a comic test of his wallet, while plans for the theatrical venture expose disagreement over who will travel with the troupe. Bunch's approaching marriage and John's obligations to his wife complicate their business arrangements. Readers interested in American comic speech and entertainment culture will find a story in which the partners' confident sales talk repeatedly meets awkward practical questions.