Funny Stories. By P. T. Barnum. (Routledge and Sons.)—The curious
thing about this volume is that the stories are not funny. We venture to say that an average reader will get through it with hardly more than one or two spontaneous laughs. Literally the best thing that the present writer has been able to find in it, is a tale that has something of the look of a "Joe Miller." An impecunious parson, who was accustomed to borrow small sums from members of his congregation, announced one day as his text: "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." His auditors were on the qui vive. The preacher gave out two heads—patience, and payment in full—and spent more than an hour in an exhaustive account of the first. Then he said : "Time fails me, and I must postpone my consideration of payment in full." But what a testimony to Mr. Barnum's genius as a raconteur is this fact ! Are these the things with which he keeps the table in a roar ? Then he must have a marvellous way of saying them.
Previous page
