The American Joe Miller: A Collection of Yankee Wit and Humor
Philosophy
The American Joe Miller: A Collection of Yankee Wit and Humor
American wit and humor
A Yankee divine, of an advanced age, married for his second wife a
damsel young and handsome. When the elders of the church went to
inquire if the lady was a suitable person to make a useful figure as
a parson's wife, he answered frankly that he didn't think she was.
"But," added the irrepressible doctor, "although I don't pretend she
is a saint, she is a very pretty little sinner, and I love her." The
twain became one flesh.
A STUMP ORATOR.--32.
An Ohio stumper, while making a speech, paused in the midst of it and
exclaimed, "Now, gentlemen, what do you think?" Instantly a man rose
in the assembly, and, with one eye partially closed, modestly replied,
"I think, sir--I do indeed, sir--I think if you and I were to stump
the country together we would tell more lies than any other two men in
the country, sir; and I'd not say a word during the whole time, sir."
THE COLONEL ANSWERED.--33.
A certain colonel, a staff officer of one of the northern generals,
noted for his talent for repartee and the favourable opinion which he
entertained of his own good looks, stopped at the house of a farmer,
and discovered there a fine milch cow, and, still better, a pretty
girl, attired in a neat calico dress cut low in the neck and short in
the sleeves. After several unsuccessful attempts to engage the young
lady in conversation, he proposed to her to have the cow milked for
his own special benefit. This she indignantly refused. The colonel
not wishing to compromise his reputation for gallantry, remarked that
if all the young ladies in Virginia were as beautiful as the one
he had the pleasure of addressing, he had no desire to conquer the
Confederacy. With a toss of her pretty head, and a slight elevation of
her nose, she answered thus: "Well, sir, if all the gentlemen in your
army are as ugly as you are we ladies have no desire to conquer them."
How are you, colonel?
PITHY LETTER.--34.
General Rosecrans a few days ago received the following pertinent
letter from an indignant private:--"General,--I have been in the
service eighteen months, and have never received a cent. I desire
a furlough for fifteen days, in order to return home and remove my
family to the poor-house." The general granted the furlough.
THE GRAHAM SYSTEM.--35.
A little prattler, who had been brought up on the Graham system, asked
what she should have to eat when she went to Heaven. "The bread of
life, my dear," was the reply. "Will there be any butter on it, ma?"
was the quick retort.
WARD BEECHER'S PREACHING.--36.
Henry Ward Beecher asked Park Benjamin, the poet and humorist, why
he never came over to Brooklyn to hear him preach. Benjamin replied,
"Why, Beecher, the fact is, I have conscientious scruples against
going to places of public amusement on Sunday."
KISSING IN WISCONSIN.--37.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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