THE AMERICAN JOE MILLER. THE AMERICAN JOE MILLER: A Collection of Yankee Wit and Humour. COMPILED BY ROBERT KEMPT. "I love a teeming wit as I love my nourishment."--_Ben Jonson._ "Oh, you shall see him laugh till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up!" _Shakespeare._ [Illustration] LONDON: ADAMS AND FRANCIS, 59, FLEET STREET. [ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.] 1865. LONDON: CLAYTON AND CO., PRINTERS, 17, BOUVERIE STREET. PREFACE. So far as the Compiler is aware, no good collection of American wit and humour exists on this side of the Atlantic; certainly, no collection worthy to be considered as the American Joe Miller. In the well-known "Percy Anecdotes," in the numerous English Joe Millers, and other jest-books, a few of Brother Jonathan's good things are to be found, in company with the rich and genial wit of John Bull, the pawky humour of the Scotch, and the exuberant mirth of Paddy; but it is believed that the present is the first attempt to present anything like a complete collection of American witticisms to English readers. While every justice has been done in this matter to Scotland by Dean Ramsay's inimitable "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character;" and while a kindred service has been performed for England by Mr. John Timbs, and still more recently by Mr. Mark Lemon, not to mention others, no one, seemingly, has bethought him of gathering together the happy scintillations of Brother Jonathan's intellect. The Compiler trusts that he may have undertaken this task with at least some success.