FIGHTING

"Who gave ye th' black eye, Jim?"



"Nobody give it t' me; I had t' fight fer it."--_Life_.





"There! You have a black eye, and your nose is bruised, and your coat is

torn to bits," said Mamma, as her youngest appeared at the door. "How

many times have I told you not to play with that bad Jenkins boy?"



"Now, look here, Mother," said Bobby, "do I look as if we'd been

p aying?"





Two of the leading attorneys of Memphis, who had been warm friends for

years, happened to be opposing counsel in a case some time ago. The

older of the two was a man of magnificent physique, almost six feet

four, and built in proportion, while the younger was barely five feet

and weighed not more than ninety pounds.



In the course of his argument the big man unwittingly made some remark

that aroused the ire of his small adversary. A moment later he felt a

great pulling and tugging at his coat tails. Looking down, he was

greatly astonished to see his opponent wildly gesticulating and dancing

around him.



"What on earth are you trying to do there, Dudley?" he asked.



"By Gawd, suh, I'm fightin', suh!"





An Irishman boasted that he could lick any man in Boston, yes,

Massachusetts, and finally he added New England. When he came to, he

said: "I tried to cover too much territory."





"Dose Irish make me sick, alvays talking about vat gread fighders dey

are," said a Teutonic resident of Hoboken, with great contempt. "Vhy, at

Minna's vedding der odder night dot drunken Mike O'Hooligan butted in,

und me und mein bruder, und mein cousin Fritz und mein frient Louie

Hartmann--vhy, we pretty near kicked him oudt of der house!"





VILLAGE GROCER--"What are you running for, sonny?"



BOY--"I'm tryin' to keep two fellers from fightin'."



VILLAGE GROCER--"Who are the fellows?"



BOY--"Bill Perkins and me!"--_Puck_.





An aged, gray-haired and very wrinkled old woman, arrayed in the

outlandish calico costume of the mountains, was summoned as a witness in

court to tell what she knew about a fight in her house. She took the

witness-stand with evidences of backwardness and proverbial Bourbon

verdancy. The Judge asked her in a kindly voice what took place. She

insisted it did not amount to much, but the Judge by his persistency

finally got her to tell the story of the bloody fracas.



"Now, I tell ye, Jedge, it didn't amount to nuthn'. The fust I knowed

about it was when Bill Saunder called Tom Smith a liar, en Tom knocked

him down with a stick o' wood. One o' Bill's friends then cut Tom with a

knife, slicin' a big chunk out o' him. Then Sam Jones, who was a friend

of Tom's, shot the other feller and two more shot him, en three or four

others got cut right smart by somebody. That nachly caused some

excitement, Jedge, en then they commenced fightin'."





"Do you mean to say such a physical wreck as he gave you that black

eye?" asked the magistrate.



"Sure, your honor, he wasn't a physical wreck till after he gave me the

black eye," replied the complaining wife.--_London Telegraph_.





A pessimistic young man dining alone in a restaurant ordered broiled

live lobster. When the waiter put it on the table it was obviously minus

one claw. The pessimistic young man promptly kicked. The waiter said it

was unavoidable--there had been a fight in the kitchen between two

lobsters. The other one had torn off one of the claws of this lobster

and had eaten it. The young man pushed the lobster over toward the

waiter. "Take it away," he said wearily, "and bring me the winner."





There never was a good war or a bad peace.--_Benjamin Franklin_.





The master-secret in fighting is to strike once, but in the right

place.--_John C. Snaith_.