The Project Gutenberg eBook, Scotch Wit and Humor, by W. H. (Walter Henry) Howe

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Scotch Wit and Humor

Author: W. H. (Walter Henry) Howe

Release Date: December 29, 2012 [eBook #41732]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCOTCH WIT AND HUMOR***

E-text prepared by Margo Romberg, sp1nd,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(http://archive.org)

Scotch Wit and Humor

CLASSIFIED UNDER APPROPRIATE SUBJECT HEADINGS,
WITH, IN MANY CASES,
A REFERENCE TO A TABLE OF AUTHORS

PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO.
103-105 S. Fifteenth Street

Copyright, 1898, by
George W. Jacobs & Co.

Scotch Wit and Humor is a fairly representative collection of the type of wit and humor which is at home north of the Tweed—and almost everywhere else—for are not Scotchmen to be found everywhere? To say that wit and humor is not a native of Scotch human nature is to share the responsibility for an inaccuracy the author of which must have been as unobservant as those who repeat it. It is quite true that the humor is not always or generally on the surface—what treasure is?—and it may be true, too, that the thrifty habits of our northern friends, combined with the earnestness produced by their religious history, have brought to the surface the seriousness—amounting sometimes almost to heaviness—which is their most apparent characteristic. But under the surface will be found a rich vein of generosity, and a fund of humor, which soon cure a stranger—if he has eyes to see and is capable of appreciation—of the common error of supposing that Scotchmen are either stingy or stupid.

True, there may be the absence of the brilliancy which characterizes much of the English wit and humor, and of the inexpressible quality which is contained in Hibernian fun; but for point of neatness one may look far before discovering anything to surpass the shrewdness and playfulness to be found in the Scotch race. In fact, if Scotland had no