The Jest Book: The Choicest Anecdotes and SayingsLemon, Mark
General
The Jest Book: The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings
Lemon, Mark
Anecdotes -- Great Britain; English wit and humor
A _little_ garden _little_ Jowett made,
And fenced it with a _little_ palisade;
Because this garden made a _little_ talk,
He changed it to a _little_ gravel walk;
And now, if more you'd know of _little_ Jowett,
A _little_ time, it will a _little_ show it.
CMLXXXIV.--BREVITY OF CHARITY.
BREVITY is in writing what charity is to all other virtues.
Righteousness is worth nothing without the one, nor authorship without
the other.
CMLXXXV.--HIGH GAMING.
BARON N., once playing at cards, was guilty of an _odd trick_; on which
his opponent threw him out of the window of a one-pair-of-stairs room.
The baron meeting Foote complained of this usage, and asked what he
should do? "Do," says the wit, "never play _so high_ again as long as
you live."
CMLXXXVI.--HARD OF DIGESTION.
QUIN had been dining, and his host expressed his regret that he could
offer no more wine, as he had lost the key of his wine-cellar. While the
coffee was getting ready the host showed his guest some natural
curiosities, and among the rest an ostrich. "Do you know, sir, that this
bird has one very remarkable property--he will swallow iron?"--"Then
very likely," said Quin, "he has swallowed the _key_ of your
_wine-cellar_!"
CMLXXXVII.--A MONSTER.
SYDNEY SMITH said that "the Court of Chancery was like a
boa-constrictor, which swallowed up the estates of English gentlemen in
haste, and digested them at leisure."
CMLXXXVIII.--SAILOR'S WEDDING.
A JACK-TAR just returned from sea, determined to commit matrimony, but
at the altar the parson demurred, as there was not cash enough between
them to pay the fees: on which Jack, thrusting a few shillings into the
sleeve of his cassock, exclaimed, "Never mind, brother, marry us as _far
as it will go_."
CMLXXXIX.--QUID PRO QUO.
SMITH and Brown, running opposite ways round a corner, struck each
other. "Oh dear!" says Smith, "how you made my head ring!"--"That's a
sign it's hollow," said Brown. "Didn't yours _ring_?" said Smith. "No,"
said Brown. "That's a sign it's _cracked_," replied his friend.
CMXC.--THE TRUTH BY ACCIDENT.
ONE communion Sabbath, the precentor observed the noble family of ----
approaching the tables, and likely to be kept out by those pressing in
before them. Being very zealous for their accommodation, he called out
to an individual whom he considered the principal obstacle in clearing
the passage, "Come back, Jock, and let in the noble family of ----," and
then turning to his psalm-book, took up his duty, and went on to read
the line, "Nor stand _in sinners' way_."
CMXCI.--ENCOURAGEMENT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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