It was Cain who invented that immortal riddle, "When is a door not a door ?" the true answer being, "when it is a bird." This is as far as I have been able to discover the first thing in the nature of a joke ever known on this planet, though whether it was the one that made the original Hyena laugh I have not been able to ascertain.

It is a joke that has appeared in modified form many times since.

Even that illustrious pundit, Senator Chauncey M.DeMagog uses it as his most effective peroration at this season's public banquets.

I heard him myself get it off at The Egyptian Society Dinner last month, as well as at the Annual Banquet of The Sons and Daughters of the Pre-Adamite Evolution, the month before, changing the answer, however, to "when it's a jar"-- which I personally do not consider an improvement, for when a door becomes a jar I must confess I cannot see.

A jar, as I understand it, is a vessel, a receptacle, a jug, a sort of demijohn, or decanter that people use to store up water, or to keep the juice of the grape in, like a pitcher, or an amphora; and how by any stretch of the imagination a door could become such a thing is beyond my ken, although I must say that the jest when told by the Senator in his own inimitable way, was received with shouts of laughter every time he got it off.