_Kitty:_ "Well, you"ll be fearfully lonely, won"t you, with only George Washington?"
TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR
The woman lecturing on dress reform was greatly shocked when she read the report as published in the local paper. The writer had been innocent enough, for his concluding sentence was:
"The lady lecturer on dress wore nothing that was remarkable."
But the merry compositor inserted a period, which was left undisturbed by the proofreader, so that the published statement ran:
"The lady lecturer on dress wore nothing. That was remarkable."
The poet, in a fine frenzy, dashed off a line that was really superb:
"See the pale martyr in his sheet of fire."
The devilish compositor so tangled the words that, when the poem was published, this line read:
"See the pale martyr with his shirt on fire."
The critic, in his review of the burlesque, wrote:
"The ladies of Prince Charming"s household troops filled their parts to perfection."
The compositor, in his haste, read an _n_ for the _r_ in the word _parts_, and the sentence, thus changed, radically in its significance, duly appeared in the morning paper.
VALUES
An American girl who married a Bavarian baron enjoyed playing Lady Bountiful among the tenants on her husband"s estate. On the death of the wife of one of the cottagers, she called to condole with the bereaved widower. She uttered her formal expressions of sympathy with him in his grief over the loss of his wife, and she was then much disconcerted by his terse optimistic comment:
"But it"s a good thing, your ladyship, that it wasn"t the cow."
Wives are to be had for the asking; cows are not.
VANITY
The fair penitent explained to the confessor how greatly she was grieved by an accusing conscience. She bewailed the fact that she was sadly given over to personal vanity. She added that on this very morning she had gazed into her mirror and had yielded to the temptation of thinking herself beautiful.
"Is that all, my daughter?" the priest demanded.
"Then, my daughter," the confessor bade her, "go in peace, for to be mistaken is not to sin."
VICTORY
That celebrated statue, the Winged Victory, has suffered during the centuries to the extent of losing its head and other less vital parts.
When the Irish tourist was confronted by this battered figure in the museum, and his guide had explained that this was the famous statue of victory, he surveyed the marble form with keen interest.
"Victory, is ut?" he said, "Thin, begorra, Oi"d loike to see the other fellow."
WAR
A report has come from Mexico concerning the doings of three revolutionary soldiers who visited a ranch, which was the property of an American spinster and her two nieces. The girls are pretty and charming, but the aunt is somewhat elderly and much faded, though evidently of a dauntless spirit. The three soldiers looked over the property and the three women, and then declared that they were tired of fighting, and had decided to marry the women and make their home on the ranch.
The two girls were greatly distressed and terrified, but even in their misery they were unselfish.
"We are but two helpless women," they said in effect, "and if we must, we bow to our cruel fate. But please--oh, please--spare our dear auntie.
Do not marry her."
At this point, their old-maid relation spoke up for herself:
"Now, now, you girls--you mind your own business. War is war."
"How do countries come to go to war?" the little boy inquired, looking up from his book.
"For various reasons," explained the father. "Now, there was Germany and Russia. They went to war because the Russians mobilized."
"Not at all, my dear," the wife interrupted. "It was because the Austrians--"
"Tut, tut, my love!" the husband remonstrated. "Don"t you suppose I know?"
"Certainly not--you are all wrong. It was because--"
"Mrs. Perkins, I tell you it was because--"
"Benjamin, you ought to know better, you have boggled--"
"Your opinion, madam, has not been requested in this matter."
"Shut up! I won"t have my child mistaught by an ignoramus."
"Don"t you dare, you impudent--"
"And don"t you dare bristle at me, or I"ll--"
"Oh, never mind!" the little boy intervened. "I think I know now how wars begin."
At our entry into the World War, a popular young man enlisted and before setting forth for camp in his uniform made a round of farewell calls.