es in telling
a humorous anecdote to an audience a speaker secures the greatest effect
by maintaining an expression of extreme gravity.

No matter how successful one may be in telling stories, he should avoid
telling too many. A man who is accounted brilliant and entertaining may
become an insufferable bore by continuing to tell stories when the
hearers have become satiated. Of all speakers, the story-teller should
keep his eyes on his entire audience and be alert to detect the
slightest signs of weariness.

It is superfluous to say that a story should never be told which in any
way might give offence. The speaker may raise a laugh, but lose a
friend. Hence it is that stories about stammerers, red-headed people,
mothers-in-law, and the like, should always be chosen with
discrimination.

Generally the most effective story is one in which the point of humor is
not disclosed until the very last words, as in the following:

An old colored man was brought up before a country judge.

"Jethro," said the judge, "you are accused of stealing General Johnson's
chickens. Have you any witnesses?"

"No, sah," old Jethro answered, haughtily; "I hab not, sah. I never
steal chickens befo' witnesses."

This is a similar example, told by Prime Minister Asquith:

An English professor wrote on the blackboard in his laboratory,
"Professor Blank informs his students that he has this day been
appointed honorary physician to his Majesty, King George."

During the morning he had some occasion to leave the room, and found on
his return that some student wag had added the words,

"God save the King!"

Henry W. Grady was a facile story-teller. One of his best stories was as
follows:

"There was an old preacher once who told some boys of the Bible lesson
he was going to read in the morning. The boys, finding the place, glued
together the connecting pages. The next morning he read on the bottom of
one page: 'When Noah was one hundred and twenty years old he took unto
himself a wife, who was'--then turning the page--'one hundred and forty
cubits long, forty cubits wide, built of gopherwood, and covered with
pitch inside and out.' He was naturally puzzled at this. He read it
again, verified it, and then said: 'My friends, this is the first time
I ever met this in the Bible, but I accept it as an evidence of the
assertion that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.'"

Personalities based upon sarcasm or invective are always attended with