The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-11-30
BURDETTE WAS A HIT
HE DREW CROWD THAT FILLED
THE PEOPLES
CHURCH
AND THEY ALL LAUGHED, TOO
Burhngton's Former Editor Enter
tanned an Audience of 1000 for
Two Hours With a Dissertation
on the Merry Heart Which DOeth
Good Like a Medicine-It Was
Treat.

Robert j. Burdette talked at railroad
speed for nearly two hours at the
Peoples church last evening to an
laughing, listened attentively to his
word-painting. Mr. Burdette has an
excellent appearance on the platform
and, although his voice is not as pleas
ing as it might be, he has a happy way
of using it to the best advantage.
The lecture was the second of q
series of attractions given under the
auspices of the Y. M c. A of this
city at popular prices, and this fact
coupled with the fame of the lecturer,
called to the church the largest audi
ence it has ever held. The church was
packed for the first time in it's career
"a merry heart doeth good like a
medicine" was the point of the speak
er's talk, and he certainly caused a
deal OF merriment with his humorous
recital of events and incidents of every
day life.
His description of visit to the old
Pennsylvania homestead and a night
spent in the room occupied when
child, with vivid picture of the old
fashioned bed in the attic, the feather
bed quilt and the discomforts of a
country farm house was one Of the
best of the many good stories he told.
Here are some of the things he said
at which the audience laughed:
Providence had ordained jokes shall
be old so we can appreciate them.
When have you heard anything new?
A man with something new to say
does not grow on every plum tree,
even i'll Pennsylvania.
There are no new funny stories. Men
who have studied them say there were only
seven original jokes in the world l don't
know what they were, but think they may
have been mine.
What keeps Jokes fresh is that they are
always local. joke may be older than the
ark or the pyramids but the man who tells
1t never starts out by saying When a rela-
tive Of mine steered the ark or Carried
hod on the pyramids He always wrggles
himself or some one Of his family into the
story.
''All old stories are palatable. The greatest
people on earth are those who see the joke
the day IT happens. funny story now was
not funny when it happened. week or so
afterward 1t dawns on you that you did not
appreciate it.
= The Oldest story is the stovepipe story.
There is nothing funny in stovepipe. When
a man comes home some evening early in No
vember and finds his wife and a pile OF stove
pipe in the middle Of room he doesn't
ma hal He goes out in the woodshed and
says something to himself. When a man Is
putting stovepipe together he doesn't laugh.
He does not laugh until his knuckles are
well.
The man, who in coming down stairs
early in the morning falls over a train of
cars which his eldest son has left on the
second step from the top. and never strikes
until he reaches the bottom, does not laugh
at the time. In fact his wife has to lock the
children in the kitchen to keep them from
hearing what their father said.
"Humor is an acquired sense, and man has
10 acquire 1t. OF course your children have
it, especially IL you have only one children
and it Is only six months old.
For years l slept with my own son. No
/ didn't sleep. l occupied the same room.
spent most all of my time nights walking