[The Complete PG Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.]@TWC D-Link bookThe Complete PG Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. CHAPTER XI 1/33
[The company looked a little flustered one morning when I came in, -- so much so, that I inquired of my neighbor, the divinity-student,) what had been going on.
It appears that the young fellow whom they call John had taken advantage of my being a little late (I having been rather longer than usual dressing that morning) to circulate several questions involving a quibble or play upon words,--in short, containing that indignity to the human understanding, condemned in the passages from the distinguished moralist of the last century and the illustrious historian of the present, which I cited on a former occasion, and known as a PUN.
After breakfast, one of the boarders handed me a small roll of paper containing some of the questions and their answers.
I subjoin two or three of them, to show what a tendency there is to frivolity and meaningless talk in young persons of a certain sort, when not restrained by the presence of more reflective natures .-- It was asked, "Why tertian and quartan fevers were like certain short-lived insects." Some interesting physiological relation would be naturally suggested. The inquirer blushes to find that the answer is in the paltry equivocation, that they SKIP a day or two.--"Why an Englishman must go to the Continent to weaken his grog or punch." The answer proves to have no relation whatever to the temperance-movement, as no better reason is given than that island--( or, as it is absurdly written, ILE AND) water won't mix .-- But when I came to the next question and its answer, I felt that patience ceased to be a virtue.
"Why an onion is like a piano" is a query that a person of sensibility would be slow to propose; but that in an educated community an individual could be found to answer it in these words,--"Because it smell odious," quasi, it's melodious,--is not credible, but too true.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|