The American Joe Miller: A Collection of Yankee Wit and Humor
John Stuart Mill · en
A dealer in ready-made linen advertises his shirts and chemisettes
under the mellifluous appellation of "Male and Female Envelopes."
GONE HOME.--413.
One of the Richmond papers thus pleasantly announces the death of a
newspaper man in the Libby prison:--"A Yankee reporter gone home to
write up his reports by the fire."
AN INCIDENT AND AN EPIGRAM.--414.
It chanced one evening, at one of the great hotels, that a gentleman,
seeking in vain for a candle with which to light himself to his room
at a late hour, passed a young lady who had two candles, of which she
politely offered him one. He took it and thanked her, and the next
morning acknowledged the courtesy in the following epigram. Luckily
for the poet (for his epigram would otherwise have been pointless),
the young lady was as handsome as she was polite:--
"You gave me a candle: I give you my thanks,
And add--as a compliment justly your due--
There isn't a girl in these feminine ranks
Who could, if she tried, hold a candle to you!"
JUST GOT MARRIED.--415.
The following amusing incident took place upon one of the Ohio river
steamboats:--While the boat was lying at Cincinnati, just ready to
start for Louisville, a young man came on board, leading a blushing
damsel by the hand, and approaching the polite clerk, in a suppressed
voice; "I say," he exclaimed, "me and my wife have just got married,
and I'm looking for accommodations." "Looking for a berth?" hastily
inquired the clerk--passing tickets out to another passenger. "A
_birth_! thunder and lightning, no!" gasped the astonished man; "_we
ha'nt but just got married_; we want a place to stay all night, you
know, and--and a bed."
KIND AND SYMPATHETIC.--416.
"What is the matter, my dear?" asked a wife of her husband, who had
sat half an hour with his face buried in his hands, and apparently
in great tribulation. "Oh, I don't know," said he; "I have felt like
a fool all day." "Well," returned the wife, consolingly, "I'm afraid
you'll never be any better--you look the picture of what you feel!"
HUMAN NATURE.--417.
Some wise man sagely remarked, "there is a good deal of human nature
in man." It crops out occasionally in boys. One of the urchins in the
school-ship _Massachusetts_, who was quite sick, was visited by a kind
lady. The little fellow was suffering acutely, and his visitor asked
him if she could do anything for him. "Yes," replied the patient,
"read to me." "Will you have a story?" asked the lady. "No," answered
the boy; "read from the Bible; read about Lazarus;" and the lady
complied. The next day the visit was repeated, and again the boy asked
the lady to read. "Shall I read from the Bible?" she inquired. "Oh,
no," was the reply, "I'm better to-day; _read me a love story_."
A YOUNG LADY'S SACRIFICE.--418.