American fiction -- 19th century; American poetry -- 19th century; American wit and humor; Short stories, American
If a man would realize the truth of this, let him go on a Sunday
excursion. The male Sunday excursionist enjoys himself, as the darkies
say, "a gwine and a cornin'." No other being on earth can hold quite
so much bubbling and vociferous joy. The welkin that would not ring
when the Sunday excursionist opens his escape valve is not worth a
cent. Six days the Sunday excursionist labors and does his work, but
he does his best to refute the opponents of the theory of the late
Charles Darwin. He occupies all the vacant seats in the car with his
accomplices, and lets his accursed good nature spray over the rest of
the passengers. He is so infernally happy that he wants everybody, to
the brakeman on the rear car, to know it. He is so devilish agreeable,
so perniciously jolly and so abominably entertaining that people who
were bom with or have acquired brains love him most vindictively.
People who become enamored of the Sunday excursionist are apt to grow
insanely jealous, and have been known to rise up and murder him when a
stranger enters the car and he proceeds to repeat his funny remarks
for the benefit of a fresh audience.
The female Sunday excursionist generally accompanies him. She brings
her laugh with her, and does a turn in the pauses of his low comedy
work. She never by any accident misplaces her laugh or allows it to
get out of curl. It ripples naturally and conforms readily to the size
of the car. She puts on the male Sunday excursionist's hat, and he
puts on hers, and if the other passengers are feeling worse than
usual, they sing "The Swanee River." There is enough woe and sorrow in
the world without augmenting it in this way.
Men who have braved the deepest troubles and emerged unscathed from
the heaviest afflictions have gone down with a shriek of horror and
despair before the fatal hilarity of the Sunday excursionist. There is
no escape from his effects.
Decoration Day
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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