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
MDLIV.--ALWAYS THE BETTER.
A CAMBRIDGE tutor said to his pupil, "If you go over to Newmarket,
beware of betting, for in nine cases out of ten it brings a man to
ruin."--"Sir," said the youth, "I must really differ from you; so far
from ever being the worse for it, I have invariably been _the better_."
MDLV.--A PUNGENT PINCH.
WHEN Curran was cross-examining Lundy Foot, the celebrated Irish
tobacconist, he put a question at which Lundy hesitated a great deal:
"Lundy," exclaimed Curran, "that's a poser,--a deuse of a _pinch_,
Lundy!"
MDLVI.--"OFF WITH HIS HEAD."
AN EMINENT painter, who had suffered, under the common malady of his
profession, namely, to paint portraits for persons who neither paid for
them nor took them away, sent word to an ugly customer who refused to
pay, that he was in treaty for the picture with the landlord of the
"_Saracen's Head_." It was paid for immediately.
MDLVII.--ON A GREAT TALKER.
TO hear Dash by the hour blunder forth his vile prose,
Job himself scarcely patience could keep;
He's so dull that each moment we're ready to doze,
Yet so noisy we can't go to sleep.
MDLVIII.--DRY HUMOR.
AN Irish post-boy having driven a gentleman a long stage during torrents
of rain, was asked if he was not very wet? "Arrah! I wouldn't care about
being _very wet_, if I wasn't so _very dry_, your honor."
MDLIX.--CHANGE FOR A GUINEA.
THE beautiful Lady Coventry was exhibiting to Selwyn a splendid new
dress, covered with large silver spangles, the size of a shilling, and
inquired of him whether he admired her taste. "Why," he said, "you will
be _change for a guinea_."
MDLX.--AS BLACK AS HE COULD BE PAINTED.
A LITTLE boy one day came running home, and said, "O father, I've just
seen the blackest man that ever was!"--"How black was he, my son?"--"O,
he was as black as black can be! why, father, charcoal would make a
_white_ mark on him!"
MDLXI.--A MAN AND A BROTHER.
HARRY WOODWARD, walking with a friend, met a most miserable object, who
earnestly solicited their charity. On Woodward giving a few pence, his
friend said, "I believe that fellow is an impostor."--"He is either the
most distressed man, or the best actor, I ever saw in my life," replied
the comedian: "and, as _either one or the other, he has a brotherly
claim upon me_."
MDLXII.--PULLING UP A POET.
A POET was once walking with T----, in the street, reciting some of his
verses. T---- perceiving, at a short distance, a man yawning, pointed
him out to the poet, saying, "Not so loud, _he hears you_."
MDLXIII.--AN HONOR TO TIPPERARY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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