PRINTERS
The master of all trades: He beats the farmer with his fast "hoe," the carpenter with his "rule," and the mason in "setting up tall columns"; and he surpasses the lawyer and the doctor in attending to the "cases,"
and beats the parson in the management of the devil.
PRISONS
A man arrested for stealing chickens was brought to trial. The case was given to the jury, who brought him in guilty, and the judge sentenced him to three months' imprisonment. The jailer was a jovial man, fond of a smile, and feeling particularly good on that particular day, considered himself insulted when the prisoner looking around the cell told him it was dirty, and not fit for a hog to be put in. One word brought on another, till finally the jailer told the prisoner if he did not behave himself he would put him out. To which the prisoner replied: "I will give you to understand, sir, I have as good a right here as you have!"
SHERIFF--"That fellow who just left jail is going to be arrested again soon."
"How do you know?"
SHERIFF--"He chopped my wood, carried the water, and mended my socks. I can't get along without him."
PRODIGALS
"Why did the father of the prodigal son fall on his neck and weep?"
"Cos he had ter kill the fatted calf, an' de son wasn't wort' it."
PROFANITY
THE RECTOR--"It's terrible for a man like you to make every other word an oath."
THE MAN--"Oh, well, I swear a good deal and you pray a good deal, but we don't neither of us mean nuthin' by it."
FIRST DEAF MUTE--"He wasn't so very angry, was he?"
SECOND DEAF MUTE--"He was so wild that the words he used almost blistered his fingers."
The little daughter of a clergyman stubbed her toe and said, "Darn!"
"I'll give you ten cents," said father, "if you'll never say that word again."
A few days afterward she came to him and said: "Papa, I've got a word worth half a dollar."
Very frequently the winter highways of the Yukon valley are mere trails, traversed only by dog-sledges. One of the bishops in Alaska, who was very fond of that mode of travel, encountered a miner coming out with his dog-team, and stopped to ask him what kind of a road he had come over.
The miner responded with a stream of forcible and picturesque profanity, winding up with:
"And what kind o' trail did you have?"
"Same as yours," replied the bishop feelingly.--_Elgin Burroughs_.
A scrupulous priest of Kildare, Used to pay a rude peasant to swear, Who would paint the air blue, For an hour or two, While his reverence wrestled in prayer.
Donald and Jeanie were putting down a carpet. Donald slammed the end of his thumb with the hammer and began to pour forth his soul in language befitting the occasion.
"Donald, Donald!" shrieked Jeanie, horrified. "Dinna swear that way!"
"Wummun!" vociferated Donald; "gin ye know ony better way, now is the time to let me know it!"
"It is not always necessary to make a direct accusation," said the lawyer who was asking damages because insinuations had been made against his client's good name. "You may have heard of the woman who called to the hired girl, 'Mary, Mary. come here and take the parrot downstairs--the master has dropped his collar button!'"
Little Bartholomew's mother overheard him swearing like a mule-driver.
He displayed a fluency that overwhelmed her. She took him to task, explaining the wickedness of profanity as well as its vulgarity. She asked where he had learned all those dreadful words. Bartholomew announced that Cavert, one of his playmates, had taught him.
Cavert's mother was straightway informed and Cavert was brought to book.
He vigorously denied having instructed Bartholomew, and neither threats nor tears could make him confess. At last he burst out:
"I didn't tell Bartholomew any cuss words. Why should I know how to cuss any better than he does? Hasn't his father got an automobile, too?"
They were in Italy together.
"If you would let me curse them black and blue," said the groom, "we shouldn't have to wait so long for the trunks."
"But, darling, please don't. It would distress me so," murmured the bride.
The groom went off, but quickly returned with the porters before him trundling the trunks at a double quick.
"Oh, dearest, how did you do it? You didn't--?"
"Not at all. I thought of something that did quite as well. I said, '_S-s-s-susquehanna, R-r-r-rappahannock!'"--Cornelia C. Ward_.