Transcriber's Note
This book is actually three volumes in one, each complete in itself.The page numbering starts at the beginning for each new volume.
The rest of the Transcriber's Note is at the end of the book.
EDITED BY ROBERT MERRY.
NEW YORK:
THOMAS O’KANE, PUBLISHER,
130 NASSAU STREET.
PREFACE.
The innumerable readers of Merry’s Museum will here meetwith many familiar faces, lighted up by pleasant smiles, andhear the same old jovial laughter that greeted them in the oldentime.
Our motto is that of our noble State—“Excelsior!” Our readerswill see that we have not buried the talents of our contributors innapkins—but seek to bring them out into the bright day: For Genius—likethe lamp of Aladdin—needs constant polishing to bring out itslustre and full effect.
Our object has been to instruct by smiles—not frowns; to cheerthe dear hearts of the young girlhood and boyhood; to strew flowersamong the necessary thorns of existence. In a word, we try in thesepages to make the sad happy—the happy still happier.
Hence, pure fun will be found as beautiful in these pages, as honeyamid the flowers of Hybla.
Robert Merry to his friends
A kindly greeting sends,
With a general assortment of questions,
Conundrums, Charades,
Puzzles, Riddles of all shades,
And Rebuses, as aids
To intellectual and social digestion.
If the young Merry host
Acquaintance should boast,
Or kindred, or authorship pat,
With some of our jokes,
We confess—(’tis no hoax)—
To amuse other folks,
We have riddled the Museum “Chat.”
Now we beg you will show,
If you happen to know,
Why the Editor, painstaking soul?
Is like the cold storm
Which, in climates bright and warm,
Where gallinippers swarm,
Come shivering down from the pole?