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Project Gutenberg's Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor, by Various 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.net Title: Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor Volume I Author: Various Editor: Thomas L. Masson Release Date: April 21, 2007 [EBook #21196] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN WIT AND HUMOR *** Produced by Bryan Ness, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor Edited by Thomas L. Masson [Illustration: Oliver Wendell Holmes] VOLUME I _By_ Washington Irving Oliver Wendell Holmes Benjamin Franklin "Josh Billings" "Mark Twain" Charles Dudley Warner James T. Fields Henry Ward Beecher and others NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1903 Copyright, 1903, by DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY Published, October, 1903 [Illustration: Handwritten introduction: Those selections in this book which are from my own works, were made by my two assistant compilers, not by me. This is why There are not more. Mark Twain] INTRODUCTION This anthology of American Humor represents a process of selection that has been going on for more than fifteen years, and in giving it to the public it is perhaps well that the Editor should precede it with a few words of explanation as to its meaning and scope. Not only all that is fairly representative of the work of our American humorists, from Washington Irving to "Mr. Dooley," has been gathered together, but also much that is merely fugitive and anecdotal. Thus, in many instances literary finish has been ignored in order that certain characteristic and purely American bits should have their place. The Editor is not unmindful of the danger of this plan. For where there is such a countless number of witticisms (so-called) as are constantly coming to the surface, and where so many of them are worthless, it must always take a rare discrimination to detect the genuine from the false. This difficulty is greatly increased by the difference of opinion that exists, even amo
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