PRONUNCIATION
A tale is told of a Kansas minister, a great precisionist in the use of
words, whose exactness sometimes destroyed the force of what he was
saying. On one occasion, in the course of an eloquent prayer, he
pleaded:
"O Lord! waken thy cause in the hearts of this congregation and give
them new eyes to see and new impulse to do. Send down Thy lev-er or
lee-ver, according to Webster's or Worcester's dictionary, whichever
Thou usest, and pry them into activity."
"I'm at the head of my class, pa," said Willie.
"Dear me, son, how did that happen?" cried his father.
"Why, the teacher asked us this morning how to pronounce
C-h-i-h-u-a-h-u-a, and nobody knew," said Willie, "but when she got down
to me I sneezed and she said that was right."
_See also_ Liars.
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POLITICAL PARTIES
ZOO SUPERINTENDENT--"What was all the rumpus out there this morning?" ATTENDANT--"The bull moose and the elephant were fighting over their feed." "What happened?" "The donkey ate it."--_Life_. ... POLITICIANS
Politicians always belong to the opposite party. The man who goes into politics as a business has no business to go into politics.--_Life_. A political orator, evidently better acquainted with western geography than with the language of t... POLITICS
Politics consists of two sides and a fence. If I were asked to define politics in relation to the British public, I should define it as a spasm of pain recurring once in every four or five years.--_A.E.W. Mason_. LITTLE CLARENCE (who has ... POVERTY
Poverty is no disgrace, but that's about all that can be said in its favor. A traveler passing through the Broad Top Mountain district in northern Bedford County, Pennsylvania, last summer, came across a lad of sixteen cultivating a patch of ... PRAISE
WIFE (complainingly)--"You never praise me up to any one." HUB--"I don't, eh! You should hear me describe you at the intelligence office when I'm trying to hire a cook." "What sort of a man is he?" "Well, he's just what I've been looking ... PRAYER MEETINGS
A foreigner who attended a prayer meeting in Indiana was asked what the assistants did. "Not very much," he said, "only they sin and bray." ... PRAYERS
During the winter the village preacher was taken sick, and several of his children were also afflicted with the mumps. One day a number of the devout church members called to pray for the family. While they were about it a boy, the son of a member... PREACHING
The services in the chapel of a certain western university are from time to time conducted by eminent clergymen of many denominations and from many cities. On one occasion, when one of these visiting divines asked the president how long he shou... PRESCRIPTIONS
After a month's work in intensely warm weather a gardener in the suburbs became ill, and the anxious little wife sent for a doctor, who wrote a prescription after examining the patient. The doctor, upon departing, said: "Just let your husband take... PRESENCE OF MIND
"What did you do when you met the train-robber face to face?" "I explained that I had been interviewed by the ticket-seller, the luggage-carriers, the dining-car waiters, and the sleeping-car porters and borrowed a dollar from him." ... 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 manag... 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... 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, wa... PROHIBITION
"Talking about dry towns, have you ever been in Leavenworth, Kansas?" asked the commercial traveler in the smoking-car. "No? Well, that's a dry town for you, all right." "They can't sell liquor at all there?" asked one of the men. "Only if yo... PROMOTING
Mr. Harcourt, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, at the British North Borneo dinner, said that a City friend of his was approached with a view to floating a rubber company. His friend was quite ready. "How many trees have you?" he asked. "We... PROMOTION
Promotion cometh neither from the east nor the west, but from the cemetery.--_Edward Sanford Martin_. ... PROMPTNESS
"Are you first in anything at school, Earlie?" "First out of the building when the bell rings." The head of a large business house bought a number of those "Do it now" signs and hung them up around his offices. When, after the first few day... PRONUNCIATION
A tale is told of a Kansas minister, a great precisionist in the use of words, whose exactness sometimes destroyed the force of what he was saying. On one occasion, in the course of an eloquent prayer, he pleaded: "O Lord! waken thy cause in th... PROPORTION
A middle-aged colored woman in a Georgia village, hearing a commotion in a neighbor's cabin, looked in at the door. On the floor lay a small boy writhing in great distress while his mother bent solicitously over him. "What-all's de matter wif de... PROPOSALS
A love-smitten youth who was studying the approved method of proposal asked one of his bachelor friends if he thought that a young man should propose to a girl on his knees. "If he doesn't," replied his friend, "the girl should get off." A ... PROPRIETY
There was a young lady of Wilts, Who walked up to Scotland on stilts; When they said it was shocking To show so much stocking, She answered: "Then what about kilts?" --_Gilbert K. Chesterton_. ... PROSPERITY
May bad fortune follow you all your days And never catch up with you. ... PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH
One of our popular New England lecturers tells this amusing story. A street boy of diminutive stature was trying to sell some very young kittens to passers-by. One day he accosted the late Reverend Phillips Brooks, asking him to purchase, and ... PROTESTANTS
A Protestant mission meeting had been held in an Irish town and this was the gardener's contribution to the controversy that ensued: "Pratestants!" he said with lofty scorn, "'Twas mighty little St. Paul thought of the Pratestants. You've all hear... PROVIDENCE
"Why did papa have appendicitis and have to pay the doctor a thousand dollars, Mama?" "It was God's will, dear." "And was it because God was mad at papa or pleased with the doctor?"--_Life_. There's a certain minister whose duties someti... PROVINCIALISM
Some time ago an English friend of Colonel W.J. Lampton's living in New York and having never visited the South, went to Virginia to spend a month with friends. After a fortnight of it, he wrote back: "Oh, I say, old top, you never told me that ... PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATIONS
The attorney demanded to know how many secret societies the witness belonged to, whereupon the witness objected and appealed to the court. "The court sees no harm in the question," answered the judge. "You may answer." "Well, I belong to thre... PUBLIC SPEAKERS
ORATOR--"I thought your paper was friendly to me?" EDITOR--"So it is. What's the matter?" ORATOR--"I made a speech at the dinner last night, and you didn't print a line of it." EDITOR--"Well, what further proof do you want?" TRAVELING ... PUNISHMENT
A parent who evidently disapproved of corporal punishment wrote the teacher: "Dear Miss: Don't hit our Johnnie. We never do it at home except in self-defense." "No, sirree!" ejaculated Bunkerton. "There wasn't any of that nonsense ... PUNS
A father once said to his son, "The next time you make up a pun, Go out in the yard And kick yourself hard, And I will begin when you've done." ... PURE FOOD
Into a general store of a town in Arkansas there recently came a darky complaining that a ham which he had purchased there was not good. "The ham is all right, Zeph," insisted the storekeeper. "No, it ain't, boss," insisted the negro. "Dat ham... QUARRELS
"But why did you leave your last place?" the lady asked of the would-be cook. "To tell the truth, mum, I just couldn't stand the way the master an' the missus used to quarrel, mum." "Dear me! Do you mean to say that they actually used to quar... QUESTIONS
The more questions a woman asks the fewer answers she remembers.--_Wasp_. It was a very hot day and the fat drummer who wanted the twelve-twenty train got through the gate at just twelve-twenty-one. The ensuing handicap was watched with absor... QUOTATIONS
Stanley Jordan, the well-known Episcopal minister, having cause to be anxious about his son's college examinations, told him to telegraph the result. The boy sent the following message to his parent: "Hymn 342, fifth verse, last two lines." Loo... RACE PREJUDICES
A negro preacher in a southern town was edified on one occasion by the recital of a dream had by a member of the church. "I was a-dreamin' all dis time," said the narrator, "dat I was in ole Satan's dominions. I tell you, pahson, dat was shore a...