show/hide slide effect speed parameter is affecting delay instead of speed.

show/hide slide effect speed parameter is affecting delay instead of speed.

I am a beginner so bear with me.  I am applying an effect show (slide) to a div that is hidden with css display:none.  I am having trouble getting the animation speed parameter of slide to work correctly.  Whenever I change the speed from say 500 to 2000 the only thing that changes is time delay before the effect fires from 1/2 sec to 2 sec.  What should change is the animation speed. 

I am sure this is probably something simple I am doing wrong, but I cannot figure it out.  I appreciate your help.

The browser is FF, files are local, everything appears to function correctly but the slide speed.  I also checked it in Chrome and it does the exact same thing.

JS

    $(document).ready(function(){
          $("a.about").click(function(event){
               event.preventDefault();
           $(".hidetable").show('slide', {direction:"left"},1000);
         });
        $(".hidetable").mouseleave(function(){
        $(".hidetable").hide('slide', {direction:"right"},1000);
        });
});

CSS on the div .hidetable

#abouthide {
      margin-right : 80px ;
}

.hidetable {
      background : none repeat scroll 0 0 #FFF7DF ;
      border : 10px groove #33CCFF ;
      display : none ;
      height : 340px ;
      left : 50% ;
      margin-left : -405px ;
      margin-top : -180px ;
      position : absolute ;
      top : 50% ;
      width : 300px ;
      z-index : 1000 ;
}

HTML

<div id="abouthide" class="hidetable">
<h3 id="abouthide"><b>About</b></h3>
<p id="abouthide">some words <p>
</div>