Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-09-17
THE MIppLE.AeED MAN.
Recalling an Old Joke, He Is Reminded
of His Own Increasing Years.

of His Own Increasing Years.
mo little thing that has happened
to me recently" said the middle-aged
man to a New York Sun reporter, "has
brought to my mind so strikingly as
this slight incident did the difference
between the old times and the new,
nor has any little thing so vividly re-
minded me Of my increasing years:
"One of the standard jokes that had
point in the times when I was boy
and that went the rounds in. print then,
besides being often brought into play
In jocular conversation, related to
ones having left his pocketbook at
home on the piano. Here, say, is a
man buying something in store, and
when he comes to pay for 1t he reaches
In his pocket in which he always car
ries his purse. And 1t isn't there!
And then, surprised at not finding
1t there, he pats all his other pockets
in succession, and then reaches in each
and every one Of them in search Of
1t, to discover that he hasn't got It
about him anywhere. And then he
looks up and says:
"Well, by gracious! haven't got
any money. I must have left my
pocketbook on the piano!"
This joke in Its day was considered
a good one, easy and plain and yet not
without some subtlety, joke appeal
ing to many, because originally 1t was
put out not as a joke at all, but as a
bluff. as something that was seriously
propounded and perhaps seriously ac-
cepted.
Its original utterer Is supposed to
have been a man who had put up a
fair front, but who when the pinch
came proved to have no money and
who then accounted for its absence in
way to imply that while he had no
money with him he was, nevertheless,
a man Of resources, as this incidental
remark, casually made, was intended
to show. And, perhaps. 1t went. He
had left his money on the piano. II he
had a piano 1t was a reasonable infer
ence that he was man Of at least
some means, for In those days pianos
were, comparatively speaking, rare,
and so this man who had left his
pocketbook home on the piano might
be a man who could be trusted.
$50 as to its origin and perhaps as
to its occasional early use; but later
1t was regarded as joke only, In
which manner Of acceptance 1t obtain
ed its widest currency, with its hu-
morous subtlety of meaning. In this
latter use the man to whom 1t was up
to pay something and who found, as
perhaps he knew and as others had
shrewdly guessed, that he had no
money said jokingly:
"Well. guess I must have left my
money home on the piano."
"But times have changed, and the
old joke, with whatever significance,
no longer goes.
Recently when I went to pay for
something in store where / trade
found that had actually left my
pocketbook at home, and the old joke
coming back to me, said to the young
men who kept the store, smilingly:
"T guess I must have left my
pocketbook on the piano.
But the old joke awakened in them
no response whatever. And why should
It? They have a piano, have a pia-
no, everybody IN these days has
piano. and so my remark as joke had
nc special significance for them. It
was simply statement by me that
had left my money on the piano.
$50 was brought to realize that,
except for those old enough to recall
II, this once honorable and generally
enjoyed joke had now lost its humor."