"Now that you have made $50,000,000, I suppose you are going to keep right on for the purpose of trying to get a hundred millions?"
"No, sir. You do me an injustice. I"m going to put in the rest of my time trying to get my conscience into a satisfactory condition."
"When I was a young man," said Mr. c.u.mrox, "I thought nothing of working twelve or fourteen hours a day."
"Father," replied the young man with sporty clothes, "I wish you wouldn"t mention it. Those non-union sentiments are liable to make you unpopular."
No good man ever became suddenly rich.--_Syrus_.
And all to leave what with his toil he won, To that unfeather"d two-legged thing, a son.
--_Dryden_.
_See also_ Capitalists.
MINORITIES
Stepping out between the acts at the first production of one of his plays, Bernard Shaw said to the audience:
"What do you think of it?"
This startled everybody for the time being, but presently a man in the pit a.s.sembled his scattered wits and cried:
"Rotten!"
Shaw made a curtsey and melted the house with one of his Irish smiles.
"My friend," he said, shrugging his shoulders and indicating the crowd in front, "I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?"
MISERS
There was an old man of Nantucket Who kept all his cash in a bucket; But his daughter, named Nan, Ran away with a man-- And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
A mere madness, to live like a wretch, and die rich.--_Robert Burton_.
MISSIONARIES
SHE--"Poor cousin Jack! And to be eaten by those wretched cannibals!"
HE--"Yes, my dear child; but he gave them their first taste in religion!"
At a meeting of the Women"s Foreign Missionary Society in a large city church a discussion arose among the members present as to the race of people that inhabited a far-away land. Some insisted that they were not a man-eating people; others that they were known to be cannibals.
However, the question was finally decided by a minister"s widow, who said:
"I beg pardon for interrupting, Mrs. Chairman, but I can a.s.sure you that they are cannibals. My husband was a missionary there and they ate him."
MISSIONS
"What in the world are you up to, Hilda?" exclaimed Mrs. Bale, as she entered the nursery where her six-year-old daughter was stuffing broken toys, headless dolls, ragged clothes and general debris into an open box.
"Why, mother," cried Hilda, "can"t you see? I"m packing a missionary box just the way the ladies do; and it"s all right," she added rea.s.suringly, "I haven"t put in a single thing that"s any good at all!"
MISTAKEN IDENt.i.tY
There was a young fellow named Paul, Who went to a fancy dress ball; They say, just for fun He dressed up like a bun, And was "et" by a dog in the hall.
A Scottish woman, who was spending her holidays in London, entered a bric-a-brac shop, in search of something odd to take home to Scotland with her. After she had inspected several articles, but had found none to suit her, she noticed a quaint figure, the head and shoulders of which appeared above the counter.
"What is that j.a.panese idol over there worth?" she inquired of the salesman.
The salesman"s reply was given in a subdued tone:
"About half a million, madam. That"s the proprietor!"
The late James McNeil Whistler was standing bareheaded in a hat shop, the clerk having taken his hat to another part of the shop for comparison. A man rushed in with his hat in his hand, and, supposing Whistler to be a clerk angrily confronted him.
"See here," he said, "this hat doesn"t fit."
Whistler eyed the stranger critically from head to foot, and then drawled out:
"Well, neither does your coat. What"s more, if you"ll pardon my saying so, I"ll be hanged if I care much for the color of your trousers."