The Humour of America: Selected, with an Introduction and Index of American Humorists
General
The Humour of America: Selected, with an Introduction and Index of American Humorists
American wit and humor
“Becoz,” continyood I, transfixin him with my penetratin gaze, “Oberlin
won’t submit. We mite 2-day hev peese, ef Oberlin wood say to Linkin,
‘Resine!’ and to Geff Davis, ‘Come up higher!’ When I say Oberlin,
understand it ez figgerative fer the entire Ablishn party, uv wich
Oberlin is the fountin hed. There’s wher the trubble is. Our Suthern
brethren wuz reasonable. So long ez the dimocrisy controld things, and
they got all they wanted, they wuz peeceable. Oberlin ariz—the dimocrisy
wuz beet down, and they riz up agin it.”
Jest eggsactly 80-six yeres ago, akordin to Jayneses almanac, a work
wich I perooz annually with grate delite, the Amerykin Eagle (whose
portrate any wun who possessis a 5 cent peece kin behold) wuz born, the
Goddis uv Liberty bein its muther, the Spirit uv Freedom its sire, Tomas
Gefferson actin ez physician on the occasion. The proud bird growd ez
tho it slept on guano—its left wing dipt into the Pasific, its rite into
the Atlantic, its beek thretened Kanady, while his magestik tale cast a
shadder ore the Gulf. Sich wuz the Eagle up to March, ’61. Wat is his
condishn now? His hed hangs, his tale droops, ther’s no strength in his
talons. Wat’s the trubble? Oberlin. He hed bin fed on nigger fer yeres,
and hed thrived on the diet. Oberlin got the keepin uv him—she withholds
his nateral food—and onless Oberlin is whaled this fall, down goes the
Eagle.
_Petroleum V. Nasby._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_AN ECONOMICAL PROJECT._
_To the Authors of the Journal of Paris._
MESSIEURS,—You often entertain us with accounts of new discoveries.
Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, one that has
lately been made by myself, and which I conceive may be of great
utility.
I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new lamp of
Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced and much admired for its
splendour; but a general inquiry was made, whether the oil it consumed
was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which case there
would be no saving in the use of it. No one present could satisfy us in
that point, which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very
desirable thing to lessen, if possible, the expense of lighting our
apartments, when every other article of family expense was so much
augmented.
I was pleased to see this general concern for economy, for I love
economy exceedingly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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