Of all the Pike attractions the one best calculated to cure melancholia was that which bore on its front the winking clown and the four grinning maidens. It was variously designated as the Temple of Mirth, the Foolish House and the Fun Factory. Clever barkers assisted in drawing a crowd; but the patrons on the inside were the best advertisement for the concession. Screams of laughter could be heard issuing from within the mysterious portals. Where there was so much amusement for others, there must be at least a dime's worth for any passer-by, hence everyone went to the Foolish Factory. Those inside found, a source of all that hilarity, first a mirror maize in which the victim could wander for a long time, encountering his own image at every turn; then a succession of grotesque mirrors and a collection of cabinets, each one contained some surprise, and finally Dead Man's Alley, ending with the circular slide. The mirrors, concave and convex, that distorted the reflection in a hundred different ways, producing the most ridiculous pictures, were provocative of most of the infectious laughter.
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