Excerpt from The Humour of America: Selected, With an Introduction and Index of American Humorists
Hen_ the unfortunate man standing on the scaffold was asked by a spectator to make a speech, he said that, considering the interesting pro gramme which had been prepared by their good friend the Sheriff, he could n'ot hope to say anything likely to amuse them. The compiler of a book of humour may recognise a like anxiety on the part of the public to push on to the principal attraction. There arises on his mental Vision the eager face of the book-buyer, as he hurriedly skims over the leaves at the commencement of the volume, to find the end of the introduction and the beginning of the humour.
