A QUESTION OF LOCALITY
“Bobby,” said the lady in the tramcar, severely, “why don’t you get up and give your seat to your[Pg 339] father? Doesn’t it pain you to see him reaching for the strap?”
“Not in a car,” said Bobby. “It does at home.”
* * *
HER SOFT ANSWER
They had had their usual altercation over the breakfast table, and hubby exclaimed:
“What would you do if I were one of those husbands who get up cross in the morning, bang the things about, and kick because the coffee is cold?”
“Why,” replied his wife, “I should make it hot for you!”
* * *
HE WAS WRONG
Prison Visitor: “Am I right in presuming that it was your passion for strong drink that brought you here?”
Prisoner: “I don’t think you can know this place, guv’nor. It’s the last place on earth I’d come to if I was looking for anything to drink.”
* * *
OPENING FATHER’S EYES
“Papa,” said Little Horatio, “can you explain philosophy to me?”
“Of course I can,” answered his proud parent.
“Natural philosophy, my son, is the science of cause and reason. Now, for instance, you see the steam [Pg 340]coming out of that kettle, but you don’t know why, or for what reason it does so, and–”
“Oh! but I do, papa,” chirped little Horatio knowingly. “The reason the steam comes out of the kettle is so that ma can open your letters without you knowing it.”
* * *
NICE
She had only been married a month, when her friend called to see how she was getting on.
“We’re getting on fine!” exclaimed the young wife. “We have a joint account in the bank; it’s such fun to pay bills by cheque.”
“What do you mean by joint account?” asked the caller. “Do you put in equal sums?”
“Oh! I don’t put in anything,” was the explanation. “Tom puts it in, and I draw it out!”
* * *
NOT NEEDED
O’Grady: “And why do you want to sell your nightshirt?”
Pat: “Shure, and what good is it to me now whin oive me new job av night watchman an’ slape in the day toimes?”
* * *
SHE COULD USE HIM
“Rastus,” said the judge sternly, “you’re plain no-account and shiftless, and for this fight I’m going to send you away for a year at hard labour.”
“Please, Jedge,” interrupted Mrs. Rastus from the rear of the court room, “will yo’ Honah jes’ split dat sentence? Don’t send him away from home, but let dat hard labour stand.”
* * *
DECLINED WITH THANKS
Farmer Brown was an old-fashioned farmer. He firmly believed in that quaint and worn-out saying, “Early to bed, early to rise.” He couldn’t get along at all with the modern type of farmhands. So, after thinking matters over, Brown decided to reform.
After many trials he secured a strapping, big fellow, and resolved to keep that hand at any cost. Accordingly, the first morning he waited until four o’clock before he called him for breakfast.
“Get out of there quick if you want anything to eat.”
“Thanks very much,” said the new hand, “but I never eat anything just before going to sleep.”
* * *
MANAGING THE MANAGERS
This conversation was overheard in the corridor of the offices of a large firm. Needless to say, the speakers were lady clerks-
“He’s given me such a fearful telling-off,” said one; “just because I couldn’t find him his copy of ‘Who’s Who.'”
“Pooh! Don’t cry, you little silly. You’ve got to[Pg 342] manage him. When you’ve been here six weeks, like I have, you’ll jolly well tell him to buy a copy of ‘Where’s Which,’ and find his old ‘Who’s Who’ himself!”
* * *
A GREAT LIGHT
The skipper was examining an ambitious gob who wanted to be a gunner’s mate.
“How much does a six-pound shell weigh?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” the gob confessed.
“Well, what time does the twelve o’clock train leave?”
“Twelve o’clock.”
“All right, then, how much does a six-pound shell weigh?”
“Ah,” said the youthful mariner, a great light dawning on him. “Twelve pounds.”
* * *
The two flappers at the Strand seemed barely in their ‘teens, yet their conversation stamped them as seasoned film fans. They were discussing titles of pictures in general, and the tiny blonde expressed regret that the recent German importations had had their titles changed for American consumption. “If they had only called that picture ‘Du Barry’ instead of ‘Passion,’ think what a hit it would have made!”
Her bobbed-hair companion tossed her head and scoffed: “Don’t you believe it. There’s millions of folks never heard of Du Barry, but every one knows about passion.”
* * *
“We will take as our text this morning,” announced the absent-minded clergyman, consulting his memorandum, “the sixth and seventh verses of the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs.” Never suspecting that his vivacious son and heir had found the memorandum in his study on the previous night, and, knowing that his papa had composed a sermon celebrating the increased severity of dry law enforcement, had diabolically changed the chapter and verse numerals to indicate a very different text, the absent-minded clergyman turned to the place and read aloud these words of Solomon: “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his past poverty, and remember his misery no more.”
* * *
“You don’t mean to say it cost you $7000 to have your family tree looked up?”
“No; $2000 to have it looked up and $5000 to have it hushed up.”
* * *
The Aristocrat (returning to school): My ancestors came over with William the Conqueror.
The New Girl: That’s nothing! My father came over in the same boat with Mary Pickford!
* * *
It was Judgment Day, and throngs of people were crowding around the Pearly Gates trying to convince St. Peter that they were entitled to enter Heaven. To the first applicant St. Peter said, “What kind of a car do you own?”
“A Packard,” was the reply.
“All right,” said St. Peter, “you go over there with the Presbyterians.”
The next in line testified that he owned a Buick, and was told to stand over with the Congregationalists. Behind him was the owner of a Dodge, who was ordered to stand with the Baptists. Finally a meek little individual came along.
“What kind of a car do you own?” was the question.
“A Ford,” was the answer.
“You just think you own a car. You go over there with the Christian Scientists.”
* * *
The Housewife: My goodness! I don’t believe you’ve washed yourself for a year.
The Hobo: Just about that. You see, I only washes before I eats.
* * *
The Professor: A diamond is the hardest known substance, inasmuch as it will cut glass.
The Cynic: Glass! My dear sir, a diamond will even make an impression on a woman’s heart.
* * *
Boss: What do you mean by such language? Are you the manager here or am I?
Jones: I know I’m not the manager.
The Boss: Very well, then, if you’re not the manager, why do you talk like a blamed idiot?
* * *
“Pa, what’s an actor?”
“An actor, my boy, is a person who can walk to the side of a stage, peer into the wings at a group of other actors waiting for their cues, a number of bored stage[Pg 345] hands, and a lot of theatrical odds and ends, and exclaim, ‘What a lovely view there is from this window!”‘
* * *
“Is she making a rich marriage?”
“I should hope to tell you; he is a butcher who has been arrested three times for profiteering.”
* * *
SANDY SCORED
A pompous Scottish laird met a farmer one morning, and observed:
“Well, Sandy, you’re getting very bent. Why don’t you stand up straight, like me?”
“Eh, mon,” replied Sandy, “d’ye see yon field of corn?”
“I do,” said the laird.
“Ah, weel,” said Sandy, “ye’ll notice that the full heids hang down, an’ that the empty yins stand up.”
* * *
WITH A RESERVATION
“Miss Smith-Belinda,” sighed the young man, passionately, “there is something I want to tell you-something that I–”
“What is it?” asked the girl, as she leaned back in her chair, with a bored expression on her face.
The young man drew a long breath, and his face turned to dull purple. “It is a question which is very near to any heart,” he said awkwardly. “Could you-do you think you could ever marry a man like me?”
“Oh, yes,” replied Belinda, quite calmly, “that is, if he wasn’t too much like you!”
* * *
TOO SMART
A Chinaman entered a jeweller’s in Liverpool and asked to be shown some “welly good watches.” The proprietor, a Jew, being absent, the prospective customer was attended to by his daughter, who got out three watches, marked respectively £5, £4, and £3 10s., and laid them in a row on the counter.
The Chink, after looking very closely at them, called the attention of the Jewess to a watch on a shelf behind her; as she turned to obtain the watch he placed the higher-priced watch, in the place of the lower-priced one, and, not caring for the watch now shown him, said: “Me no likee that; I takee cheapee watch,” paid £3 10s., and departed.
Soon the girl discovered the deception, and told her father on his return.
“Never mind, my tear,” said he, with a smile; “dose vatches cost all de same brice-two pound; but vat a scoundrel dat Chinaman must be!”
* * *
OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT
“Are all flowers popular?” asked the teacher.
“No, ma’am,” replied one of the bright little girls.
“What flowers are not popular?”
“Wall-flowers, ma’am.”
* * *
NATIVE BORN
“He hit me on de koko, yer honour.”
“Your head?”
“Yes, yer honour.”
“Why don’t you speak the English language?”
“I do, yer honour. I never wuz out of dis country in me life.”
* * *
THE JONAH
“Now, children,” said the Sunday-school teacher, “I have told you the story of Jonah and the whale. Willie, you may tell me what this story teaches.”
“Yes’m,” said Willie, the bright-eyed son ef the pastor; “it teaches that you can’t keep a good man down.”
* * *
THE SUBSTITUTE
A tourist at an hotel in Ireland asked the girl who waited at the table if he could have some poached eggs.
“We haven’t any eggs, sorr,” she replied; then, after a moment’s reflection, “but I think I could get ye some poached salmon.”
* * *
MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORSE
The maiden of, er-forty or so, was much upset.
Quoth she to a younger friend:
“Kate talks so outrageously. Yesterday she actually told me I was nothing but a hopeless old maid.”
“That’s pretty frank!” exclaimed the friend.
“Yes; wasn’t it unladylike of her?”
“It certainly was rude,” agreed the other. “Still, it’s better than having her tell lies about you.”
* * *
GOOD OR BAD TURN?
“Did your late employer give you a testimonial, Jack?”
“Yes, Tom. But the way employers look at it when I apply for a job make one think there’s something wrong with it.”
“What does it say, then?”
“Why, he said I was one of the best men his firm had ever turned out.”
* * *
TALKING SENSE
“Darling,” he asked, as he drew his fiancée closer to him, “am I the first man you have ever kissed?”
“William,” replied the American girl, somewhat testily, “before we go any further I would like to ask you a few questions. You are, no doubt, fully aware that my father is a millionaire something like ten times over, aren’t you?”
“Y-yes.”
“You understand, no doubt, that when he dies all of his vast fortune will be left to me?”
“Y-yes.”
“You know that I have a quarter of a million dollars in cash in my name at the bank?”
“Y-yes.”
“And own two and a half million dollars’ worth of property?”
“Y-yes.”
“That my diamonds are insured to the value of a quarter of a million dollars?”
“Y-yes.”
“My horses and motor-cars are worth seventy-five thousand dollars?”
“Y-yes.”
“Then, for goodness’ sake, talk sense! What difference would it make to you if I had been kissed by a thousand men before I met you?”
* * *
A MAGIC HEALER
During an exciting game of football a player had two fingers of his right hand badly smashed, and on his way home from the ground he dropped into the doctor’s to have them attended to.
“Doctor,” he asked, anxiously. “When this hand of mine heals, will I be able to play the piano?”
“Certainly you will,” the doctor assured him.
“Then you’re a wonder, doctor. I never could before.”
* * *
SHE TOOK THEM
“I don’t know whether I like these photos or not,” said the young woman. “They seem rather indistinct.”
“But, you must remember, madam,” said the wily photographer, “that your face is not at all plain.”
* * *
BUT HE’S ON HIS WAY
Uncle Tom arrived at the station with the goat he was to ship north, but the freight agent was having difficulty in billing him.
“What’s this goat’s destination, Uncle?” he asked.
“Suh?”
“I say, what’s his destination? Where’s he going?”
Uncle Tom searched carefully for the tag. A bit of frayed cord was all that remained.
“Dat ornery goat!” he exploded wrathfully. “Yo’ know, suh, dat iggorant goat done completely et up his destination.”
* * *
HER MATCH
Tommy: “What’s an echo, pa?”
Pa: “An echo, my son, is the only thing that can deprive a woman of the last word.”
* * *
“Why is it you never get to the office on time in the morning?” demanded the boss angrily.
“It’s like this, boss,” explained the tardy one; “you kept telling me not to watch the clock during office hours, and I got so I didn’t watch it at home either.”
* * *
SCIENTIFIC PROOF
One day a teacher was having a first-grade class in physiology. She asked them if they knew that there was a burning fire in the body all of the time. One little girl spoke up and said:
“Yes’m; when it is a cold day, I can see the smoke.”
* * *
Bolshie Tubthumper: Yaas, there didn’t ought to be no poor. We all ought to be wealthy, and the wealthy starvin’ like us!
* * *
Sunday School Teacher: Now, Alfred, if you are always kind and polite to your playmates, what will be the result?
Alfred: They’ll think they can lick me!
* * *
A NATURAL PICTURE
A man and his eldest son went to have their photographs taken together, and the photographer said to the young man, “It will make a better picture if you put your hand on your father’s shoulder.”
“H’m,” said the father, “it would make a more natural picture if he put it in my pocket.”
* * *
NOTHING TO SMILE AT
A Londoner was telling funny stories to a party of commercial men.
An old Scotsman, sitting in a corner seat, [Pg 352]apparently took not the smallest notice, and no matter how loud the laughter, went on quietly reading his paper. This exasperated the story-teller, until at last he said: “I think it would take an inch auger to put a joke into a Scotsman’s head.”
A voice from behind the paper replied: “Ay, man, but it wid need tae hae a finer point than ony o’ yer stories, a’m thinking!”
* * *
DREW BLANK
The MacTavish was not a mean man. No; he just knew the value of money.
So, when the MacTavish developed a sore throat he meditated fearfully upon the expenditure of a doctor’s fee. As an alternative he hung about for a day and a half outside the local doctor’s establishment. Finally he managed to catch the great man.
“Say, doctor! Hoo’s beez-ness wi’ ye the noo?”
“Oh, feyr, feyr!”
“A s’pose ye’ve a deal o’ prescribin’ tae dae fer coolds an’ sair throats?”
“Ay!”
“An’ what dae ye gin’rally gie fer a sair throat?”
“Naethin’,” replied the canny old doctor, “I dinna’ want a sair throat.”
* * *
A FRIEND IN NEED
What true friendship consists in depends on the temperament of the man who has a friend. It is [Pg 353]related that at the funeral of Mr. Scroggs, who died extremely poor, the usually cold-blooded Squire Tightfist was much affected.
“You thought a great deal of him, I suppose?” some one asked him.
“Thought a great deal of him? I should think I did. There was a true friend. He never asked me to lend him a cent, though I knew well enough he was starving to death.”
* * *
WHAT HE PREFERRED
He was one of the few remaining old-time darkies. He had finished the odd jobs for which he had been employed, and, hat in hand, appeared at the back door.
“How much is it, uncle?” he was asked.
“Yo’ say how much? Jest whatever yo’ say, missus.”
“Oh, but I would rather you’d say how much,” the lady of the house replied.
“Yas, ma’am! But, ma’am, Ah’d rather hab de seventy-five cents yo ‘would gimme dan de fifty cents Ah’d charge yo’.”
* * *
READY TO JOIN
Minister: Would you care to join us in the new missionary movement?
Miss Ala Mode: I’m crazy to try it. Is it anything like the fox trot?
* * *
HELPFUL PA!
He: Do you think your father would be willing to help me in the future?
She: Well, I heard him say he felt like kicking you into the middle of next week.
* * *
“Daughter,” said the old man, sternly, “I positively forbid you marrying this young scapegrace! He is an inveterate poker player!”
“But, papa,” tearfully protested Alicia Hortense, “poker playing is not such an awful habit. Why, at your own club–”
“That’s where I got my information, daughter. I’ll have no daughter of mine bringing home a man that I can’t beat with a flush, a full house, and fours.”
* * *
“I think, Lucille, I’ll take one of the children to the park with me. Which one do you think would go best with this dress?”