The American Joe Miller: A Collection of Yankee Wit and Humor

One of the happiest witticisms on record is related by the Boston correspondent of the _Cincinnati Gazette_:--"I heard the other day of a _bon mot_ made by Longfellow, the poet....

We got one darkie on the way out. He had never seen a cannon, and of course did not know what it was. He stood beside one when they fired it off, and I assure you Parry the clow...

In one of the fierce engagements with the rebels near Mechanicsville, in May last, a young lieutenant of a Rhode Island battery had his right foot so shattered by a fragment of...

A friend writes of a Yankee boasting an inveterate hatred of everything British, living in a neighbouring city with a colonist family. He takes every opportunity to have a slap...

So far as the Compiler is aware, no good collection of American wit and humour exists on this side of the Atlantic; certainly, no collection worthy to be considered as the Ameri...

"No matter where you may chance to be, No matter how many women you see-- A promiscuous crowd, or a certain she-- You may fully depend upon it, That a gem of the very rarest kin...

A new way of keeping warm has been put in practice with good effect. It is to have a buckwheat cake made large enough to cover the bed-quilt, and spread over it "piping hot" at...

General Lee one day found Dr. Cutting, the army surgeon, who was a handsome and dressy man, arranging his cravat complacently before a glass. "Cutting," said Lee, "you must be t...

They have orators out in Illinois, if we trust the description of a certain military one, furnished us by a correspondent in that State:--It was in dog-days, and a great hue and...

A teacher in a western county in Canada, while making his first visit to his "constituents," came into conversation with an ancient "Varmount" lady, who had taken up her residen...

Chapman, a witty lawyer of Hartford, was busy with a case at which a lady was present, with whom he had already something to do as a witness. Her husband was present--a diminuti...

VI. CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY.--This is the cow with crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that eat the malt that lay in the house that Jeff. built.

The _Louisville Journal_--an impudent, one-horse Kentucky concern, conducted by a walking whisky-bottle--says that one of our correspondents deprived it of its maps and despatch...

A rather loquacious individual was endeavouring to draw an old man into conversation, but hitherto without much success, the old fellow having sufficient discernment to see that...

When Nicholas Biddle, familiarly called Nick Biddle, was connected with the United States Bank, there was an old negro named Harry, who used to be loafing about the premises. On...

Some young ladies who had been attending an evening party, desired to return home, but had no male attendant. The master of the house requested his son to accompany them, and ma...

One of the late Governors of South Carolina was a splendid lawyer, and could talk a jury out of their seven senses. He was especially noted for success in criminal cases, almost...

Speaking of wags--what is more waggish than a dog's tail when he is pleased? Speaking of tails--we always like those that end well: Hogg's for instance. Speaking of hogs--we saw...

Mary Qu. of Scots Francis II. Darnley Charles I. Do. in armour Cromwell Sir Walter Raleigh Admirab. Crichton Kings of Scotland, from 1034 to 1714 Geo. Buchanan James VI. Marq. o...

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