"How did you find your steak?" asked the waiter of a patron in the very expensive restaurant.
"Just luck," the hungry man replied, sadly. "I happened to move that small piece of potato, and there it was!"
The new reporter wrote his concluding paragraph concerning the murder as follows:
"Fortunately for the deceased, he had deposited all of his money in the bank the day before. He lost practically nothing but his life."
The editor of the country paper went home to supper, smiling radiantly.
"Have you had some good luck?" his wife questioned.
"Luck! I should say so. Deacon Tracey, who hasn"t paid his subscription for ten years, came in and stopped his paper."
LUNACY
The lunatic peered over the asylum wall, and saw a man fishing from the bank of the river that ran close by. It was raining hard, which cooled the fevered brow of the lunatic and enabled him to think with great clearness. In consequence, he called down to the drenched fisherman:
"Caught anything?"
The man on the bank looked up, and shook his head glumly.
"How long you been there?" the lunatic next demanded.
"Three hours," was the answer.
The lunatic grinned hospitably, and called down an invitation:
"Come inside!"
LUXURY
The retired colonel, who had seen forty years of active service, gave his body servant, long his orderly, explicit instructions:
"Every morning, at five sharp, Sam, you are to wake me up, and say, "Time for the parade, sir."
"Then, I"ll say, "d.a.m.n the parade!" and turn over and go to sleep again."
LYING
The juryman pet.i.tioned the court to be excused, declaring:
"I owe a man twenty-five dollars that I borrowed, and as he is leaving town to-day for some years I want to catch him before he gets to the train and pay him the money."
"You are excused," the judge announced in a very cold voice. "I don"t want anybody on the jury who can lie like you."
The tender young mother detected her baby boy in a deliberate lie. With tears in her eyes, and a catch in her voice, she sought to impress upon him the enormity of his offense.
"Do you know," she questioned severely, "what happens to little boys who tell falsehoods?"
The culprit shook his head in great distress, and the mother explained carefully:
"Why, a great big black man, with horns on his head and one eye in the center of his forehead, comes along and grabs the little boy who has told a falsehood, and flies with him up to the moon, and keeps him there sifting ashes all the rest of his life. You won"t ever tell another falsehood, will you, darling? It"s wicked!"
Mother"s baby boy regarded the speaker with round-eyed admiration.
"Oh, ma," he gurgled, "what a whopper!"
MAIDENS
"I wish I could know how many men will be made wretched when I get married," said the languishing coquette to her most intimate confidante.
"I"ll tell you," came the catty answer, "if you"ll tell me how many men you"re going to marry."
MAIDEN SPEECH
The unhappy man explained the cause of his wretchedness:
"I"ve never made a speech in my life. But last night at the dinner at the club they insisted on my making some remarks, and I got up, and began like this:
"As I was sitting on my thought, a seat struck me."
MANNERS
It is told of Prince Herbert Bismarck that at a reception in the Royal Palace in Berlin he rudely jostled a high dignitary of the Italian church. In answer to the prelate"s expression of annoyance, the Prince drew himself haughtily erect, and said, "I am Herbert Bismarck."
"Ah," replied the churchman, "that fact is perhaps an apology; certainly, it is a complete explanation."
The tenderfoot in the Western town asked for coffee and rolls at the lunch counter. He was served by the waitress, and there was no saucer for the cup.
"What about the saucer?" he asked.
The girl explained: