oted darky was leaning against the corner of the
railroad station in a Texas town when the noon whistle in the
canning factory blew and the hands hurried out, bearing their
grub buckets. The darky listened, with his head on one side
until the rocketing echo had quite died away. Then he heaved a
deep sigh and remarked to himself:

"Dar she go. Dinner time for some folks--but jes' 12 o'clock fur
me!"

That is the situation in thousands of American factories, large
and small, today. And why? etc., etc.

Doubtless the most frequent platform use of the anecdote is in the
pulpit. The sermon "illustration," however, is not always strictly
narrative in form, but tends to extended comparison, as the following
from Dr. Alexander Maclaren:

Men will stand as Indian fakirs do, with their arms above their
heads until they stiffen there. They will perch themselves upon
pillars like Simeon Stylites, for years, till the birds build
their nests in their hair. They will measure all the distance
from Cape Comorin to Juggernaut's temple with their bodies along
the dusty road. They will wear hair shirts and scourge
themselves. They will fast and deny themselves. They will build
cathedrals and endow churches. They will do as many of you do,
labor by fits and starts all thru your lives at the endless task
of making yourselves ready for heaven, and winning it by
obedience and by righteousness. They will do all these things
and do them gladly, rather than listen to the humbling message
that says, "You do not need to do anything--wash." Is it your
washing, or the water, that will clean you? Wash and be clean!
Naaman's cleaning was only a test of his obedience, and a token
that it was God who cleansed him. There was no power in Jordan's
waters to take away the taint of leprosy. Our cleansing is in
that blood of Jesus Christ that has the power to take away all
sin, and to make the foulest amongst us pure and clean.

One final word must be said about the introduction to the anecdote. A
clumsy, inappropriate introduction is fatal, whereas a single apt or
witty sentence will kindle interest and prepare a favorable hearing. The
following extreme illustration, by the English humorist, Captain Harry
Graham, well satirizes the stumbling manner:

The best story that I ever heard was one that I was told once in
the fall of 1905 (o