"They bought their tickets from scalpers, my child."
The costumer came forward to attend to the nervous old beau who was mopping his bald and shining poll with a big silk handkerchief.
"And what can I do for you?" he asked.
"I want a little help in the way of a suggestion," said the old fellow.
"I intend going to the French Students' masquerade ball to-night, and I want a distinctly original costume--something I may be sure no one else will wear. What would you suggest?"
The costumer looked him over attentively, bestowing special notice on the gleaming knob.
"Well, I'll tell you," he said then, thoughtfully: "why don't you sugar your head and go as a pill?"--_Frank X. Finnegan_.
United States Senator Ollie James, of Kentucky, is bald.
"Does being bald bother you much?" a candid friend asked him once.
"Yes, a little," answered the truthful James.
"I suppose you feel the cold severely in winter," went on the friend.
"No; it's not that so much," said the Senator. "The main bother is when I'm washing myself--unless I keep my hat on I don't know where my face stops."
A near-sighted old lady at a dinner-party, one evening, had for her companion on the left a very bald-headed old gentleman. While talking to the gentleman at her right she dropped her napkin unconsciously. The bald-headed gentleman, in stooping to pick it up, touched her arm. The old lady turned around, shook her head, and very politely said: "No melon, thank you."
BANKS AND BANKING
During a financial panic, a German farmer went to a bank for some money.
He was told that the bank was not paying out money, but was using cashier's checks. He could not understand this, and insisted on money.
The officers took him in hand, one after another, with little effect. At last the president tried his hand, and after long and minute explanation, some inkling of the situation seemed to be dawning on the farmer's mind. Much encouraged, the president said: "You understand now how it is, don't you, Mr.. Schmidt?"
"I t'ink I do," admitted Mr. Schmidt. "It's like dis, aindt it? Ven my baby vakes up at night and vants some milk, I gif him a milk ticket."
She advanced to the paying teller's window and, handing in a check for fifty dollars, stated that it was a birthday present from her husband and asked for payment. The teller informed her that she must first endorse it.
"I don't know what you mean," she said hesitatingly.
"Why, you see," he explained, "you must write your name on the back, so that when we return the check to your husband, he will know we have paid you the money."
"Oh, is that all?" she said, relieved.... One minute elapses.
Thus the "endorsement": "Many thanks, dear, I've got the money. Your loving wife, Evelyn."
FRIEND--"So you're going to make it hot for that fellow who held up the bank, shot the cashier, and got away with the ten thousand?"
BANKER--"Yes, indeed. He was entirely too fresh. There's a decent way to do that, you know. If he wanted to get the money, why didn't he come into the bank and work his way up the way the rest of us did?"--_Puck_.
BAPTISM
A revival was being held at a small colored Baptist church in southern Georgia. At one of the meetings the evangelist, after an earnest but fruitless exhortation, requested all of the congregation who wanted their souls washed white as snow to stand up. One old darky remained sitting.
"Don' yo' want y' soul washed w'ite as snow, Brudder Jones?"
"Mah soul done been washed w'ite as snow, pahson."
"Whah wuz yo' soul washed w'ite as snow, Brudder Jones?"
"Over yander to the Methodis' chu'ch acrost de railroad."
"Brudder Jones, yo' soul wa'n't washed--hit were dry-cleaned."--_Life_.
BAPTISTS
An old colored man first joined the Episcopal Church, then the Methodist and next the Baptist, where he remained. Questioned as to the reason for his church travels he responded:
"Well, suh, hit's this way: de 'Piscopals is gemmen, suh, but I couldn't keep up wid de answerin' back in dey church. De Methodis', dey always holdin' inquiry meetin', and I don't like too much inquirin' into. But de Baptis', suh, dey jes' dip and are done wid hit."
A Methodist negro exhorter shouted: "Come up en jine de army ob de Lohd." "I'se done jined," replied one of the congregation. "Whar'd yoh jine?" asked the exhorter. "In de Baptis' Chu'ch." "Why, chile," said the exhorter, "yoh ain't in the army; yoh's in de navy."
BARGAINS
MANAGER (five-and-ten-cent store)--"What did the lady who just went out want?"
SHOPGIRL--"She inquired if we had a shoe department."