W. C. Fields : his follies and fortunes (1949)

Atterbury, whose eminence in his chosen line was roughly comparable to that, later on, of One-Eyed Connolly in the gatecrashing dodge. Atterbury had a manner which he had borrowed jointly from the Czar of Russia and Ghengis Khan. His assumptive, princely arrogance seemed to Fields, on the few occasions when the two had met, the very crest of elegance. All children have their heroes, and Fields tried to model himself after the doctor, whose claim to the professional title, incidentally, derived from the fact that he had been widely jailed in connection with peddling a nostrum compounded, according to United States agents, of kerosene, spring water and lye, that was guaranteed, if applied either locally or internally, to clear up things like tuberculosis and fractures. Fields' experiment with Ashcroft was largely an imitation of an English encounter that Atterbury once had, in Fields' presence. Atterbury had taken a seat on a train and lit a cigar, in violation of the rules, as stated clearly in every car. A stranger on the opposite seat demurred, pointing to the sign. Gazing serenely out of the window, Atterbury continued to smoke, pausing only to flick off his ash. The stranger became increasingly upset and argumentative. At length he pulled out a card and cried, "Perhaps you don't know who I am, sir?" Atterbury 's scrutiny of the landscape was undisturbed, but the complainant succeeded in forcing the card between two of his fingers, after which Atterbury put the card in his vest pocket. At this moment the conductor arrived, and the stranger, arising, burst into an impassioned protest. When he had finished, the conductor began a reproachful lecture. Atterbury, still studying the countryside, abstractedly drew out the card and handed it over. "Oh, that's different, sir," said the conductor, and led the stranger away, promising to find him a seat elsewhere. Fields maintained that his own heckling of the English was 9i