The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-04-25
CHATS AND SKETCHES
About Town and Elsewhere.

About Town and Elsewhere.
An alarming report has suggested
the following lines:
1t John should run for Governor,
And on his canvass enter
And turn stump.speech orator,
There'd be a real storm centerI"
-
'Tisn't everybody who can tell joke
30 that it Is joke. Lord Lauderdale
once declared that he should repeat
witty remark that Sheridan had just
made. "Pray don't, my Lord" said
Sheridan, "a joke in your mouth 10
no laughing matter"
-
Sheridan was the most brilliant wit
of the nineteenth century. AS an or
ator and dramatist he was unequaled
in his own time, and has remained un-
surpassed ever since. AT party Lord
Erskine said that ga wife was only a
tin canister tied to ones tall" upon
which Sheridan presented Lady Frs
kline, who was present, with the fol-
lowing lines:
Lord Erskine, at woman presuming to rail,
Calls wife "a tin canister tied to ones
tail;"
And fair Lady Anne, while the subject he
Seems hurt at his Lordship's degrading
comparison;
But wherefore degrading? Considered
Alright,
A csnister's polished, and useful and bright;
And should dirt its original purity hide,
That's the fault of the puppy to whom it is
tedi
~.
One night, being IN his cups, he was
found in the gutter by Waterman who
demanded his name. In a slow, DELHI
crate, and impressive tone, Sheridan
replied, "Wilberforcep (The Bishop
of OxfordD
Another poet was once told by a
lady (?) to whom he was attentive that
she "didn't care three skips of louise
for himl" The next day she received
the following verse from the poet
"a lady has told me, and in her own house,
That she doesn't care for me three skips of a
louise.
don't blame the dear creature for what
she has said
For women will talk of what runs in their
headl'
Samuel Foote was an extraordinary
mimic, and an unmercful satirist At
party his hostess called his attention
to the fact that his handkerchief was
hanging out of his pocket. To which
Foote replied, "Thank you, Madame,
you know the company better than l
dol"
Sydney Smiths wit was of q quality
peculiarly his own. 1t did not flash,
but it moved with a grand force. He
described certain PERSONS handwrit-
ing thus: at is as if swarm of ants,
escaping from an ink bottle, had walk
ed over sheet of paper without wip-
ing their legsl"
He said of Macaulay: she not only
OVERLOOKED with learning, but he stood
in the Stops" We have in mind per-
son in Montpelier who is like Macau-
lay; but wild horses cannot drag his
name from us!
He said of his friend Homer of the |
Edinburgh Review, that he had the ten
commandments written on his face,
and looked so virtuous that he could |
commit any crime with impunity.
Charles Lamb was another wit like
no one but himself. Speaking of the
"water-cure" which was so fashiona-
BILE fifty or sixty years ago, he said:
"lt is neither new nor wonderful; ii is
as old as the Deluge which killed more
than 1t cured"
~.
Doubtless most of our readers think
the English language easier than
French, or German, or any other lam
guage with which they are not &C.
quainted. But fancy foreigner trying
to read these two lines:
"Though the tough cough and hiccough plough we
through,
Der LIES dark Tough my course still pursue"
How many English or American
readers can pronounce all the coughs"
correctly?