Irish Americans -- Humor; Irish-American wit and humor
“His subject was th' Ph'lippeens, an' he said he'd just come fr'm there.
'I have cruised,' he says, 'f 'r two thousan' miles through th' Ar-rchey
Pelago--that's a funny name--ivry minyit a surprise an' delight to those
that see me,' he says. 'I see corn growin' on banana threes; I see th'
gloryous heights iv Ding Dong that ar-re irradyatin'. civilization like
quills upon th' fretful porcypine,' he says. 'I see rice, coffee, rolls,
cocoanuts, choice seegars, oats, hay, hard and soft coal, an' Gen'ral
Otis--an' there's a man that I rayspict,' he says. 'I see flowers
bloomin' that was superyor to anny conservatory in Poolasky county,'
he says. 'I see th' low and vicious inhabitants iv th' counthry soon, I
thrust, to be me fellow-citizens, an' as I set there an' watched th' sea
rollin' up its uncounted millyons iv feet iv blue wather, an' th' stars
sparklin' like lamp-posts we pass in th' night, as I see th' mountains
raisin' their snow-capped heads f'r to salute th' sun, while their feet
extinded almost to th' place where I shtud; whin I see all th' glories
iv that almost, I may say, thropical clime, an' thought what a good
place this wud be f'r to ship base-burnin' parlor stoves, an' men's
shirtings to th' accursed natives iv neighborin' Chiny, I says to
mesilf, 'This is no mere man's wurruk. A Higher Power even than Mack,
much as I rayspict him, is in this here job. We cannot pause, we cannot
hesitate, we cannot delay, we cannot even stop! We must, in other
wurruds, go on with a holy purpose in our hearts, th' flag over our
heads an' th' inspired wurruds iv A. Jeremiah Beveridge in our ears,' he
says. An' he set down.”
“Well, sir, 'twas a gr-reat speech. 'Twas a speech ye cud waltz to. Even
younger men thin Sinitor Beveridge had niver made grander orations. Th'
throuble is th' sinit is too common f'r such magnificent sintimints;
its too common and its too old. Th' young la-ad comes fr'm home, where's
he's paralyzed th' Lithry Society an' th' Debatin' Club, an' he loads
himsilf up with a speech an' he says to himsilf: 'Whin I begin peggin'
ar-round a few iv these vilets I'll make Ol' Hoar look like confederate
money,' an' th' pa-apers tell that th' Infant Demostheens iv Barry's
Junction is about f'r to revive th oratorical thraditions iv th' sinit
an' th' fire department comes up f'r a week, an' wets down th' capitol
buildin'. Th' speech comes off, they ain't a dhry eye in th' House, an'
th' pa-apers say: 'Where's ye'er Dan'l Webster an' ye'er Champ Clark,
now?' An' th' young man goes away an' has his pitchers took on a
kinetoscope. He has a nice time while it lasts, Hinnissy, but it
don't las' long. It don't las' long. Th' la-ad has th' wind, but it's
endurance that counts.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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