Scrap Book Fragments of Wit and Wisdom
A curated strip of anecdotes and vignettes from a bygone era. A doctor in an asylum jokes about recovery. An artist debates with a tavern keeper over art worth. Clergy and congregants debate meanings of miracles and phenomena. A Memphis editor and John Sharp Williams meet and remark on wit. An exchange in Kansas references Ad Astra Per Aspera.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Memphis
John Sharp Williams
Yazoo
Williams
John Sharp
Washington
John
the Statesman
Alexis of
Russia
Kansas
Topeka
Fifth Avenue
Alexis
Laughterland and Short Readings From Humor Pieces
A humorous collage features cheerful verses about Laughterland and a series of quick vignettes. Readings include a child’s inquiry about an eye injury by a grandmother and Mark Twain’s billiards tale. The mix preserves old style wit and optimistic tone.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ike
Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed
A Sydney Smith quote leads into Hall Caine recounting Rossetti and friends laughing at a wildly garish oil painting. The tavern keeper rebukes the group, amid amused reactions to the vulgar artwork in Soho.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Rossetti
Sydney Smith
Hall Caine
Soho
Must Have Had Experience in Moral Tales and Jests
A collection of humorous anecdotes and short moral sketches from a 19th century press. It includes a Scotch clergyman denouncing drunkenness, a diner charged for eating, reflections on resurrection and dawn, railway signals and a cow mishap, a Texas colonel by marriage, a henpecked man and wife, Roosevelt police humor, and a note that each feeling has its brief flowering moment.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Thompson
Markinch
Johnnie
Davie
Western Railway
Harper's Weekly
Jokes and Anecdotes From The Stage World
A collection of humorous excerpts about actors and performances. Frederick Warde sends a witty bill error about Prospero, a Dublin audience demands Sophocles, and Miss Warde replies with humor. Other pieces include Indian repartee and Beecher wit.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Frederick Warde
West
Warde
Prospero
Milan
Dad
Proved by the Scriptures on a Slow Train
Jones and Smith discuss biblical proof while riding the accommodation train at ten miles an hour. Smith questions whether the Lord made this slow coach road, to which Jones answers that Genesis Chapter one notes God made all creeping and crawling things, implying divine involvement in slow rail travel.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Jones
Smith
Talks on Advertising Solves Merchants Trade Woes
A 1909 American Press Association feature presents a town business chat. A shopkeeper laments mail order rivals and high premiums while a visitor proclaims advertising as the cure. He promises weekly talks to teach advertising as a science that can save slow sales and lift profits.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mark Twain
Mark
Scott
Also Mentioned on This Page
Walter C. Smith
F. G. Peabody
Harvard University
Nancy
Andy
John Clemmens
The
Kirk
Success Magazine
Laughterland
Region of Delight
Mary
Sidney Rosenfeld
Rosenfeld
George Macdonald
Texas
New Mexico
Higgins
Devil's River
Texas Rangers
Sah -Kunnel Thompson
Waco
Roosevelt and
Dennis
Theodore Roosevelt
Roosevelt
Henri Frederic Amfel
Lippincott’s
Sophocles
Theater Royal
Dublin
Sopherclaze
Alabama
Henry Ward Beecher
John Drew
New York
Mr. Drew
Henry Herbert Huff
American Press Association
F. H. Hutchings
Pride of
Real Grain & Milling Company
Wenatchee, Washington
E. A. King
Leavenworth, Wash
A. Cn
Ritchie
O. L. Peterson
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!