"Why do you look so sorrowful, Dennis?" asked one man of another.
"I just hear-r-d wan man call another man a liar, and the man that was called a liar said the other man would have to apologize, or there would be a fight."
"And why should that make you so sad?"
"The other man apologized."
"Johnny, it was very wrong for you and the boy next door to fight."
"We couldn"t help it, father."
"Could you not have settled your differences by a peaceful discussion of the matter, calling in the a.s.sistance of unprejudiced opinion, if need be?"
"No, father. He was sure he could whip me and I was sure I could whip him, and there was only one way to find out."
"So you"ve been fighting again! Didn"t you stop and spell your names, as I told you?"
"Y-yes; we did--but my name"s Algernon Percival, an" his is Jim!"--_Judge_.
FINANCE
"Dad," said little Reginald, "what is a bucket-shop?"
"A bucket-shop, my son," said the father, feelingly, "a bucket-shop is a modern cooperage establishment to which a man takes a barrel and brings back the bung-hole."--_Puck_.
"Dad," said the financier"s son, running into his father"s office, "lend me six hundred."
"What for, my boy?"
"I"ve got a sure tip on the market."
"How much shall we make out of it?" asked the old man cautiously.
"A couple of hundred sure," replied the boy eagerly. "That"s a hundred each."
"Here"s your hundred," said his father. "Let"s consider that we have made this deal and that it has succeeded. You make a hundred dollars and I save five hundred."
_Higher Authority_
"Mr. Brown is outside," said the new office-boy. "Shall I show him in?".
"Not on your life!" exclaimed the junior partner. "I owe him ten dollars."
"Show him in," calmly said the senior member of the firm. "He owes me twenty-five."
BUSINESS MAN (explaining)--"When they say "money is easy," they mean simply that the supply is greater than the demand."
HIS WIFE--"Goodness! I shouldn"t think such a thing possible."
SMITHSON--"Do you know that Noah was the greatest financier that ever lived?"
DIBBS--"How do you make that out?"
SMITHSON--"Well, he was able to float a company when the whole world was in liquidation."
"This car cost me thirty-five hundred dollars, Blathers, but I"ll let you have it for two thousand, eh? It"s a clean gift of fifteen hundred," said Bolivar. "Eh, what do you say?"
"No," said Blathers, "I can"t do that; but suppose you give me five hundred dollars and keep the car, eh? Clean saving of a thousand, eh?
What?"
The present financial situation gives the lie to the old adage that Exchange is no robbery.
The man who had made a huge fortune was speaking a few words to a number of students at a business cla.s.s. Of course, the main theme of his address was himself.
"All my success in life, all my tremendous financial prestige," he said proudly, "I owe to one thing alone--pluck, pluck, pluck!"
He made an impressive pause here but the effect was ruined by one student, who asked impressively:
"Yes, sir; but how are we to find the right people to pluck?"
A young New Haven man, returning home from a health trip to Colorado, told his father about buying a silver mine for $3,000. "I knew they"d rope you in!" exclaimed the old man. "So you were a.s.s enough to buy a humbug mine."
"Yes, but I didn"t lose anything. I formed a company, and sold half the stock to a Connecticut man for $7,000."
"Y-you did," gasped the old man as he turned white, "I"ll bet I"m the one who bought it."
"I know you are," coolly observed the young man as he crossed his legs and tried to appear very much at home.
FISH
The teacher asked, "Who can tell me what an oyster is?"