/> "Coward," hissed the bootblack.





A farmer returning home late at night, found a man standing beside the

house with a lighted lantern in his hand. "What are you doing here?" he

asked, savagely, suspecting he had caught a criminal. For answer came a

chuckle, and--"It's only mee, zur."



The farmer recognized John, his shepherd.



"It's you, John, is it? What on earth are you doing here this time o'

night?"



Another chuckle. "I'm a-coortin' Ann, zur."



"And so you've come courting with a lantern, you fool. Why I never took

a lantern when I courted your mistress."



"No, zur, you didn't, zur," John chuckled. "We can all zee you didn't,

zur."





The senator and the major were walking up the avenue. The senator was

more than middle-aged and considerably more than fat, and, dearly as the

major loved him, he also loved his joke.



The senator turned with a pleased expression on his benign countenance

and said, "Major, did you see that pretty girl smile at me?"



"Oh, that's nothing," replied his friend. "The first time I saw you I

laughed out loud!"--_Harper's Magazine_.





Pat, thinking to enliven the party, stated, with watch in hand: "I'll

presint a box of candy to the loidy that makes the homeliest face within

the next three minutes."



The time expired, Pat announced: "Ah, Mrs. McGuire, you get the prize."



"But," protested Mrs. McGuire, "go way wid ye! I wasn't playin' at all."





ARTHUR--"They say dear, that people who live together get to look

alike."



KATE--"Then you must consider my refusal as final."





In the negro car of a railway train in one of the gulf states a bridal

couple were riding--a very light, rather good looking colored girl and a

typical full blooded negro of possibly a reverted type, with receding

forehead, protruding eyes, broad, flat nose very thick lips and almost

no chin. He was positively and aggressively ugly.



They had been married just before boarding the train and, like a good

many of their white brothers and sisters, were very much interested in

each other, regardless of the amusement of their neighbors. After

various "billings and cooings" the man sank down in the seat and,

resting his head on the lady's shoulder, looked soulfully up into her

eyes.



She looked fondly down upon him and after a few minutes murmured gently,

"Laws, honey, ain't yo' shamed to be so han'some?"





Little dabs of powder,

Little specks of paint,

Make my lady's freckles

Look as if they ain't.



--_Mary A. Fairchild_.





He kissed her on the cheek,

It seemed a harmless frolic;

He's been laid up a week

They say, with painter's colic.



--_The Christian Register_.





MOTHER (to inquisitive child)--"Stand aside. Don't you see the gentleman

wants to take the lady's picture?"



"Why does he want to?"--_Life_.





One day, while walking with a friend in San Francisco, a professor and

his companion became involved in an argument as to which was the

handsomer man of the two. Not being able to arrive at a settlement of

the question, they agreed, in a spirit of fun, to leave it to the

decision of a Chinaman who was seen approaching them. The matter being

laid before him, the Oriental considered long and carefully; then he

announced in a tone of finality, "Both are worse."





"What a homely woman!"



"Sir, that is my wife. I'll have you understand it is a woman's

privilege to be homely."



"Gee, then she abused the privilege."





Beauty is worse than wine; it intoxicates both the holder and the

beholder.--_Zimmermann_.