The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-24
KNOX MEETS AN OLD JOKE
And Has q Pleasant Interview
With L.,


With Il.
Copyright. 1892, By the United Pressn
NEW YORK, Jan. "a was sitting at my
desk an hour ago, writing what considered
an unanswerable argument, providing thas
the Welsh rabbit, born in captivity, is es
easily domesticated as is the coon dog.
had just rounded Off paragraph with
wlttlcism that | thought was very neat
when the Light Of my lamp fickered and
went out. Then, down a moonbe3m that
ghnted through a skylight and ended on
copy OF n. Webster'S dictionary, there
hoated a quaint figure, dressed in a motley
garment, patched and faded. IL stretched
itself out IN arecumbent posture on the back
OF the dictionary. and. resting on its elbow,
with every appearance OF intense fatigue,
looked reproachfully at me-
wei. am here again." said the queer
inquire, but | think you might have al
lowed me to rest little while longer
Who are you, and why do you come
here!n l asked.
Don't know me. ehi Why, 1 am The
Old Joke. the Oldest of my race. / came
here because you wanted TO use me to-
night. You have used me before, but 1 am
not surprised that you fail to recognize me
now, for l have Travelled much and have
been twisted and changed and worn a good
deal since we last metz
After to -Dight | shall give you q good
long rest, If you will be kind enough to give
me brief history Of your life"
81 shall be glad to do So said The Old
! Joke, IF some one does not call me away
before finish.
know, then, that am 900 years old. -
six thousand years."
Yes, L am the first born of all the Jokes.
You are probably aware that Jokes never
die They grow old and become less inter
esting, ana their forms change as the years
| go by, but the vital principle that gave
them life, still exists. 1 cannot remember
when | was going A legend in our family
says that Adam or one of his immediate
| descendants was the author of my being
| My first recollections date back to the time
| of the flood. One of Noahs boys brought
me aboard the ark, and l used to be often
| brought into the wheel house, TO amuse
Noah and his crew, during those dull inclem-
| ent days when they were lacking around
the peak of Ararat.
II went from scaffold to scaffold with the
bod carrier when Babers tower was being
Luilt; was right along with the Egyptians
when they surveyed the site of the pyra-
mids; and the slaves passed me from one to
| the other as they shoveled sand around the
found ton Of the sphinx. When the hosts
of the Egyptians were drowned in the Red
Sea 1 was nearly lost, but was carried into
| VIC w AAAoi A4SoS Wy u .JOilJ pIlSSb u lSTdblt
and worked hard among the lsraelites dur
ing all those forty years Of dreary wander
ings.
II was old and worn before David intro
| duced me to Jonathan. Solomon presented
me to the Queen of Sheba twice, and, on
| the second occasion her majesty had tact
enough to pretend that she had never met
me before. | can well remember Delilah
saying: %, chesnutp when Samson
brought me around one day TO amuse that
fair but frail creature who. by the way,
| sawed off Samsons hair that same p M"
You must have been overworked In
those days." interrupted.
Indeed you may well say so. There
were 80 few of us in existence then that we
were kept before the public all the time,
and never got rest nor half holiday.
Whenever people gathered together in the
city, on the plains, or in the desert. there
was. You know we Jokes have the faculty
OF appearing IN many places at the same
moment and we assume many disguises
and speak all languages.
"One-aight stands were not so bad. but
when had to scoot around score or more
small towns every night, while at the same
time l was filling an engagement in an un-
interrupted run Of 100 years In the large
clties-that was WORK. | had something to
do with one of the comic poems of
Aristophanes (B. G. 400, and l helped that
genial old Greek, Euripldes, in two Of bis
comedies.
when new Joke was born in the old
days, all the people rejoiced and, for a time,
we old veterans would enjoy comparative
rest, but births OF new jokes were few and
far between. Those of US that existed then
were very popular. | have been in the
palaces OF the Caesars and in the novels Of
the poor; in the banqueting halls Of the
Roman epicures and IN the dungeons of the
gladiators; have been the favorite of
kings and the byword of beggars.
"You may think | was kept busy in the
days OF long ago, but my work then wGs
nothing to what have had to do siu ce the
art of printing was invented. l am the
slave of the types, from the loaded BREWER
of the Jimtown Daily Idmp to the rail
fence hieroglyphics of the Chinese Book of
Fate. have to be in hundreds of places at
once. Now. German editor admires me
in my English garb, abducts me, and, Civ
ing ne a Teutonic dress, puts me to work.
Again, | am stolen by an American who
gives me job on his paper, makes me do
both poetic and dialect prose work, and
doesn't give me anything like as good a po-
sition as he gives either the $3-shoe man or
the catarrh cure wretch. | have worked
harder during the last few years for a tribe
called humorists that infest this country
than had to work in all Of the first twenty
quick change business and they disguise me
so that sometimes L hardly recognize my
self"
"Do tho people receive you as we'll now
as they did when you were youngerp
"Yes; think that, on the whole, get as
much applause now as did i'll the good old
days when Pericles gave the people money
from the state treasury, with which to pay
their way to the dear old Grecian theater,
where | was having a run. | still seem
fresh and new to many who have never seen
me before, especially when some one takes
the trouble to fix me up little.
81 must be going now. for | have to black
my face directly and appear at minstrel
show. Before go | want to say TO you
that LOT of us old-timers would like you to
try and start a movement to have US re-
tired from active service. BaldNHead-In-
The-Front-Row is anxious to get out OF har-
ness, and 30 is Late From The Lodge.
Both of them were talking TO me yesterday,
and Poverty Of-The-Country- Editor was
kicking about having had TO work so
long; he claims to have been at
| it ever since the impecunious literati, in the
time OF Homer. started him on his travels.
There's poor, played out Stolen mbrella;
he is 50 thin and worn you can hardly see
| D.