The Wit and Humor of America, Volume I | Page 4

company of fun-makers--such a goodly number that space permits the mention of but a few. But we cannot have too much or even enough of anything so good or so necessary as the literature that makes us laugh. In that regard we are like a little friend of Mr. Riley's.
The Hoosier poet, as everyone knows, is the devoted friend, companion, and singer of children. He has a habit of taking them on wild orgies where they are turned loose in a candy store and told to do their worst. This particular young lady had been allowed to choose all the sorts of candy she liked until her mouth, both arms, and her pockets were full. Just as they got to the door to go out, she hung back, and when Mr. Riley stooped over asking her what was the matter, she whispered:
"Don't you think it smells like ice cream?"
Poems, stories, humorous articles, fables, and fairy tales are offered for your choice, with subjects as diverse as the styles; but however the laugh is gained, in whatever fashion the jest is delivered, the laugh-maker is a public benefactor, for laughter is the salt of life, and keeps the whole dish sweet.
Merrily yours, MARSHALL P. WILDER.
ATLANTIC CITY, 1908.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Acknowledgment is due to the following publishers, whose permission was cordially granted to reprint selections which appear in this collection of American humor.
AINSLEE'S MAGAZINE for "Not According to Schedule," by Mary Stewart Cutting.
THE HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY for "The New Version," by William J. Lampton.
THE AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY for "How We Bought a Sewin' Machine and Organ," from Josiah Allen's Wife as a P.A. and P.I., by Marietta Holley.
D. APPLETON & COMPANY for "The Recruit," from With the Band, by Robert W. Chambers.
E.H. BACON & COMPANY for "The V-a-s-e" and "A Concord Love-Song," from The V-a-s-e and Other Bric-a-Brac, by James Jeffrey Roche.
THE H.M. CALDWELL COMPANY for "Yes" and "Disappointment," from In Bohemia, by John Boyle O'Reilly.
THE COLVER PUBLISHING HOUSE for "The Crimson Cord," by Ellis Parker Butler, and "A Ballade of the 'How to' Books," by John James Davies, from The American Illustrated Magazine.
THE CROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY for "Familiar Authors at Work," by Hayden Carruth, from The Woman's Home Companion.
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY for "The Love Sonnets of a Husband," by Maurice Smiley, and "Cheer for the Consumer," by Nixon Waterman, from The Saturday Evening Post.
DEWOLFE, FISKE & COMPANY for "Grandma Keeler Gets Grandpa Ready for Sunday-School," from Cape Cod Folks, by Sarah P. McLean Greene.
DICK & FITZGERALD for "The Thompson Street Poker Club," from The Thompson Street Poker Club, by Henry Guy Carleton.
G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY for "The Tower of London" and "Science and Natural History," by Charles Farrar Browne ("Artemus Ward"); "The Musketeer," from Farmer's Alminax, and "Laffing," from Josh Billings: His Works, by Henry W. Shaw ("Josh Billings"); and for "John Henry in a Street Car," from John Henry, by George V. Hobart ("Hugh McHugh").
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY for "The Rhyme of the Chivalrous Shark," "The Forbearance of the Admiral," "The Dutiful Mariner," "The Meditations of a Mariner" and "The Boat that Ain't," from Nautical Lays of a Landsman, by Wallace Irwin.
THE DUQUESNE DISTRIBUTING COMPANY for "The Grand Opera," from Billy Baxter's Letters, by William J. Kountz, Jr.
PAUL ELDER & COMPANY for Sonnets I, VIII, IX, XII, XIV, XXI, from The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum, by Wallace Irwin.
EVERYBODY'S MAGAZINE for "The Strike of One," by Elliott Flower; "The Wolf's Holiday," by Caroline Duer; "A Mother of Four," by Juliet Wilbor Tompkins; "The Weddin'," by Jennie Betts Hartswick, and "A Double-Dyed Deceiver," by Sydney Porter ("O. Henry").
THE FEDERAL BOOK COMPANY for "Budge and Toddie," from Helen's Babies, by John Habberton.
FORDS, HOWARD & HURLBURT, for "The Deacon's Trout," from Norwood, by Henry Ward Beecher.
FOX, DUFFIELD & COMPANY for "The Paintermine," "The Octopussycat," "The Welsh Rabbittern," "The Bumblebeaver," "The Wild Boarder," from Mixed Beasts, by Kenyon Cox; "The Lost Inventor," "Niagara Be Dammed," "The Ballad of Grizzly Gulch," "A Letter from Home," "Crankidoxology" and "Fall Styles in Faces," from At the Sign of the Dollar, by Wallace Irwin, and a selection from The Golfer's Rubaiyat, by Henry W. Boynton.
THE HARVARD LAMPOON for "A Lay of Ancient Rome," by Thomas Ybarra.
HENRY HOLT & COMPANY for "Araminta and the Automobile," from Cheerful Americans, by Charles Battell Loomis.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY for "A Letter from Mr. Biggs," from The Story of a Country Town, by E.W. Howe; "The Notary of Perigueux," from Outre-Mer, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; "A Nautical Ballad," from Davy and the Goblin, by Charles E. Carryl; "The Spring Beauties," from The Ride to the Lady, by Helen Avery Cone; "Praise-God Barebones," from Songs and Lyrics, by Ellen M. Hutchinson-Cortissoz; "Fable," from Poems, by Ralph Waldo Emerson; "The Owl Critic" and "C?sar's Quiet Lunch with Cicero," from Ballads and Other Poems, by James T. Fields; "The