Copyright 2020 by Gary L. Pullman
Wild
West newspapers, it seems, were fond of philosophizing about the
causes and effects of humor, but they also offered samples of the
merchandise.
Sometimes,
the samples themselves rely upon reasoning—or, rather, errors in
the exercise of that faculty. The January 19, 1900, edition of The
Daily Morning Alaskan column
“Humor of the Hour” offers its readers these choice morsels,
borrowed form their original sources.
The first anecdote is based
upon jumping to a conclusion; the second involves a mistaken
inference; and the third relies upon the fallacy of begging the
question (and early twentieth-century sexism).
Untitled
Of
course she was indignant when it dawned on her that some one was
trying to flirt with her. Yet there was no denying the man behind her
had kept steadily after her since she had left the street car.
“And
old enough to be in better business,” she said to herself
indignantly. “I'll cross the street just to make sure whether he is
really following.”
She
crossed the street, and so did he. Then she turned on him.
“Sir,”
she said, “why do you persist in following me?”
He
started, as if disturbed in the midst of some abstruse mental
calculation, and for a minute seemed to be bewildered. Then he bowed
courteously and said:
“Madam,
why do you persist in preceding me?”
Two
doors farther on, he turned in, producing a latchkey as he did so and
showing in other ways that he had reached his destination. She turned
back and went around the block rather than pass that house, and her
face was still red when she reached home. —Chicago Post
Making
It Right
“Madam,” said the leader of
The Best Citizens' league, “I have come to inform you that we just
lynched your husband by mistake.”
The bereaved woman covered her
face with her hands and began to moan.
“There, there,” the best
citizen went on, “don't cry. We expect to get the right man before
night.” —Chicago News
Couldn't
Believe It
“Do you see that girl with the
fluffy brown hair over there?”
“The one with the pink roses
in her bodice?”
“Yes. She knows French,
German, Latin and Greek, besides English, and she graduated a few
weeks ago.”
“Pshaw, that can't be right!
There must be some mistake. Why, that girl is actually beautiful!”
(Title of source is illegible.)
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