THE
AMERICAN JOE MILLER.
THE
AMERICAN JOE MILLER:
A Collection of Yankee Wit and Humour.
COMPILED BY
ROBERT KEMPT.
"I love a teeming wit as I love my nourishment."—Ben Jonson.
"Oh, you shall see him laugh till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up!"
LONDON:
ADAMS AND FRANCIS, 59, FLEET STREET.
[ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.]
1865.
LONDON:
CLAYTON AND CO., PRINTERS,
17, BOUVERIE STREET.
PREFACE.
So far as the Compiler is aware, no good collection of Americanwit and humour exists on this side of the Atlantic; certainly, nocollection worthy to be considered as the American Joe Miller. In thewell-known "Percy Anecdotes," in the numerous English Joe Millers,and other jest-books, a few of Brother Jonathan's good things are tobe found, in company with the rich and genial wit of John Bull, thepawky humour of the Scotch, and the exuberant mirth of Paddy; but itis believed that the present is the first attempt to present anythinglike a complete collection of American witticisms to English readers.While every justice has been done in this matter to Scotland by DeanRamsay's inimitable "Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character;"and while a kindred service has been performed for England by Mr.John Timbs, and still more recently by Mr. Mark Lemon, not to mentionothers, no one, seemingly, has bethought him of gathering together thehappy scintillations of Brother Jonathan's intellect. The Compilertrusts that he may have undertaken this task with at least somesuccess.
No one at all familiar with the periodical literature of America willdeny that the Americans are a witty people. Whether their native witbe so intellectual and refined as the English, so quaint and subtleas[Pg vi] the Scotch humour, or so strong and hearty as the Irish, or,again, whether it be so keen and compact as the French esprit, maybe reasonably questioned; but that it is a straw that can tickle,and therefore, according to Dryden, an instrument of happiness,all must admit. In considering the nature of American humour, itis obvious that broad exaggeration is its great characteristic. Itis essentially outré. No people seek to raise the laugh by suchextravagant means as the Yankees. Their ordinary speech is hyperbole,or tall talk. They never go out shooting unless with the long bow.Again, their humour comes from without, rather than from within,and is less a matter of thought than of verbal expression. It dealswith the association of ideas rather than with ideas themselves.Transatlantic wit is not as a rule terse, epigrammatic, pungent,like the wit of Lamb, Hood, or Jerrold, which often lies in a singlesentence or even word. The humour of Sam Slick or James RussellLowell, for instance, lies as much in accessories as in the thingitself. It is nothing unless surrounded by circumstantial narrative.But in this it must be confessed the Americans are great masters.The