Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 20, August 13, 1870Various
General
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 20, August 13, 1870
Various
American wit and humor -- Periodicals
The Lyceum Committee held their annual meeting last week. They are in a
flourishing condition, having recently embellished their front door-step
with a new and elegant scraper of unique design; and purchased four
superb spittoons for the use of the committee. The President announced,
amid great cheering, that they would probably open the fall campaign
with eleven dollars in the treasury. The course will open with a debate
on the question: "Are sardines wholesome when ripened in the shade?"----
She who was among us one short year ago, with her winning smile and
gentle simplicity of manner, is now no more. The grass grows green o'er
her last resting place, while he who crushed her young life is far away
among his dissolute companions.
LUCY JONES was indeed a lovely maiden. The tear rises unbidden to my
eye, as I recall her in the artlessness of her maiden beauty, hanging
her feet into the mill-pond, or chewing the strings of her sun-bonnet.
And when the stagecoach came in she would stand with her apron full of
horse-chestnuts, and heave 'em at the passengers.
But the tempter came, and from that time she began to droop.
She continued to droop till she couldn't get any drooper.
And, with the gentle breath of June wafting sweet perfume from a wealth
of new-born roses, they laid her away.
And the undertaker's bill was seven dollars and forty-five cents.
Her old man's constitution was never robust, and this was too much.
"I don't complain at the seven dollars," said he, in a voice broken by
emotion, "but ain't the forty-five cents rather crowding the mourners?"
This undertaker is an awful lazy man. The neighbors say he was born with
his hands in his pockets, and they go so far as to say that 'twould have
been a good thing for his wife and family if he'd been still born. But I
think this is going too far.
I don't think he ever got over the death of his brother, about a year
ago. It was very sudden. Without thinking what he was doing, he sat down
on a keg of powder with a lighted pipe in his mouth, and we have no
authentic information of his whereabouts since.
The neighbors heard him when he went off, and, amusements being scarce
in that section, they proposed to regale themselves with an inquest.
Twenty active boys volunteered to scour the neighborhood in search of a
piece of the unfortunate man. Nineteen came back empty-handed.
The twentieth brought a button-hole, and over this the inquest was held.
His brother never took on much, but I know he felt it, for he always
calculated to have that pipe when JOHN died. It _was_ rather rough, if
you examine it critically.
P.S. What'll you charge to publish a little editorial in your paper,
saying that I am as genial and polished a gentleman as you ever met, and
'twould be perfectly safe to lend me any amount? I want it for
circulation among new acquaintances.
* * * * *
PARDONABLE SOLICITUDE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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