Irish Americans -- Humor; Irish-American wit and humor
“Well, afther they have larned in school what they ar-re licked
f'r larnin' in th' back yard--that is squashin' mud with their
hands--they're conducted up through a channel iv free an' beautiful
thought till they're r-ready f'r colledge. Mamma packs a few doylies an'
tidies into son's bag, an' some silver to be used in case iv throuble
with th' landlord, an' th' la-ad throts off to th' siminary. If he's not
sthrong enough to look f'r high honors as a middle weight pugilist he
goes into th' thought departmint. Th' prisidint takes him into a Turkish
room, gives him a cigareet an' says: 'Me dear boy, what special
branch iv larnin' wud ye like to have studied f'r ye be our compitint
profissors? We have a chair iv Beauty an' wan iv Puns an' wan iv Pothry
on th' Changin' Hues iv the Settin' Sun, an' wan on Platonic Love, an'
wan on Nonsense Rhymes, an' wan on Sweet Thoughts, an' wan on How Green
Grows th' Grass, an' wan on' th' Relation iv Ice to th' Greek Idee iv
God,' he says. 'This is all ye'll need to equip ye f'r th' perfect life,
onless,' he says, 'ye intind bein' a dintist, in which case,' he says,
'we won't think much iv ye, but we have a good school where ye can larn
that disgraceful thrade,' he says. An' th' la-ad makes his choice, an'
ivry mornin' whin he's up in time he takes a whiff iv hasheesh an' goes
off to hear Profissor Maryanna tell him that 'if th' dates iv human
knowledge must be rejicted as subjictive, how much more must they be
subjicted as rejictive if, as I think, we keep our thoughts fixed upon
th' inanity iv th' finite in comparison with th' onthinkable truth with
th' ondivided an' onimaginable reality. Boys ar-re ye with me?'”
“That's at wan colledge-Th' Colledge iv Speechless Thought. Thin there's
th' Colledge iv Thoughtless Speech, where th' la-ad is larned that th'
best thing that can happen to annywan is to be prisident iv a railroad
consolidation. Th' head iv this colledge believes in thrainin' young men
f'r th' civic ideel, Father Kelly tells me. Th' on'y thrainin' I know
f'r th' civic ideel is to have an alarm clock in ye'er room on iliction
day. He believes 'young men shud be equipped with Courage, Discipline,
an' Loftiness iv Purpose;' so I suppose Packy, if he wint there, wud
listen to lectures fr'm th' Profissor iv Courage an' Erasmus H. Noddle,
Doctor iv Loftiness iv Purpose. I loft, ye loft, he lofts. I've always
felt we needed some wan to teach our young th' Courage they can't get
walkin' home in th' dark, an' th' loftiness iv purpose that doesn't
start with bein' hungry an' lookin' f'r wurruk. An' in th' colledge
where these studies are taught, its undhershtud that even betther thin
gettin' th' civic ideel is bein' head iv a thrust. Th' on'y trouble
with th' coorse is that whin Packy comes out loaded with loftiness iv
purpose, all th' lofts is full iv men that had to figure it out on th'
farm.”
“I don't undherstand a wurrud iv what ye're sayin',” said Mr. Hennesy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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