Irish Americans -- Humor; Irish-American wit and humor
“That's where ye're wrong,” Mr. Dooley replied. “Take money annywhere
ye find it. I'd take money f'rm England, much as I despise that formerly
haughty but now dejected land, if I cud get anny from there. An' whin ye
come down to it, I dinnaw as I blame Willum Waldorf Asthor f'r shiftin'
his allegiance. Ivry wan to his taste as th' man said whin he dhrank out
iv th' fire extinguisher. It depinds on how ye feel. If ye ar-re a tired
la-ad an' wan without much fight in ye, livin' in this counthry is
like thryin' to read th' Lives iv the Saints at a meetin' iv th'
Clan-na-Gael. They'se no quiet f'r annybody. They's a fight on ivry
minyit iv th' time. Ye may say to ye'ersilf: 'I'll lave these la-ads
roll each other as much as they plaze, but I'll set here in th' shade
an' dhrink me milk punch, but ye can't do it. Some wan 'll say, 'Look at
that gazabo settin' out there alone. He's too proud f'r to jine in our
simple dimmycratic festivities. Lave us go over an' bate him on th'
eye.' An' they do it. Now if ye have fightin' blood in ye'er veins ye
hastily gulp down yeer dhrink an' hand ye'er assailant wan that does him
no kind iv good, an' th' first thing ye know ye're in th thick iv it an'
its scrap, scrap, scrap till th' undhertaker calls f'r to measure ye.
An' 'tis tin to wan they'se somethin' doin' at th' fun'ral that ye're
sorry ye missed. That's life in America. Tis a gloryous big fight, a
rough an' tumble fight, a Donnybrook fair three thousan' miles wide an'
a ruction in ivry block. Head an' ban's an' feet an' th' pitchers on th'
wall. No holds barred. Fight fair but don't f'rget th' other la-ad may
not know where th' belt line is. No polisman in sight. A man's down with
twinty on top iv him wan minyit. Th' next he's settin' on th' pile usin'
a base-ball bat on th' neighbor next below him. 'Come on, boys, f'r
'tis growin' late, an' no wan's been kilt yet. Glory be, but this is th'
life!'
“Now, if I'm tired I don't want to fight. A man bats me in th' eye an'
I call f'r th' polis. They isn't a polisman in sight. I say to th'
man that poked me: 'Sir, I fain wud sleep.' 'Get up,' he says, 'an' be
doin',' he says. 'Life is rale, life is earnest,' he says, 'an' man was
made to fight,' he says, fetchin' me a kick. An' if I'm tired I say,
'What's th' use? I've got plenty iv money in me inside pocket. I'll go
to a place where they don't know how to fight. I'll go where I can get
something but an argymint f'r me money an' where I won't have to rassle
with th' man that bates me carpets, ayether,' I says, 'f'r fifty cints
overcharge or good govermint,' I says. An' I pike off to what Hogan
calls th' effete monarchies iv Europe an' no wan walks on me toes, an'
ivry man I give a dollar to becomes an acrobat an' I live comfortably
an' die a markess! Th' divvle I do!
“That's what I was goin' to say,” Mr. Hennessy remarked. “Ye wudden't
live annywhere but here.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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