Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-22

9os
steadily maintained that FtzHerbert de Percy was
his and only lawful name-until he had served
his full term and honorably discharged. After
that had been done, one OF the officers took HIM
aside and said:
Now, de Percy, understand you will not
enlist"
Il will not, sir"
Then, as a personal favor should like YOU to
tell me Your real name don't mind saving that
l have a bet it with the DOCTOR and l don't
peCt you tell for nothing. In fact, here's
five dollars for you in consideration of your private
feelings l suppose YOU had your family reasons
for conCealng it when YOU enlisted?
The ex-trooper accepted the five and owned up.
We'll, sir, YOU hit the thruth l did not enlist
undher me rae name. That | concealed for family
known to anybody but the gentlemin of the mess,
in sthrict confidence. Me rae name is not Fitz-
Herbert de Percy. I'm sorry to say. Me rale name.
sir, is FitzClarence de Montmorency.
President Jacksons Retort
THE Irish-American humorist did not appear in
literature before the time of the Civil War,
though when the occasion called for a remark that
would outlast more pompous expressions he gen.
orally said something that enriched the language
1t the of an 1rishnan, President Andrew
Jackson, who, when his Secretary of State, Van
Buren, proffered him unasked advice as to how the
President should receive visiting foreign noble
man, replied paternally:
Van once knew man in Tennessee who made
his everlasting fortune by mnding his business
The hurnor here is not very subtle; but the
speech intended rather to be effective than
Where Davy Crockett Went
THE same may be said of Jacksons contemporary
another Irish-American soldier, Davy Crockett
who enjoyed celebrity in Congress by his Western
humor When the Colonel for reelection how
ever he was badly defeated Thereupon he called
together his constituents and delivered the most
remarkably frank speech record. winding up
with the statement that he through with politics
forever, and that you may all go to hell, and I'll
go to Texas
Which he did History does say whittier
his constituents went; but they are all dead
which "a starter at least, as Colonel Crockett
himself would say,
The Right to Be Killed
ONE of the unforgotten humorists OF the war
~ period was General Charles Halpn who wrote
good war poems under the name of Private Miles
O'Reillv.'' Probably the keenest of them the
prvaes opinion the enlistment of negro soldiers
for the Union:
hrade of being kilt belongs but to the white;
Nut 5T e kit Jn Ve with him en evrv ar in the
listen me- boys darling don't think that m giving
Nv right to be kilt III divide him. give him the
biggest half.
Some of Lanigan's Fables
THE next Irsh-American humorous writer was
the immortal author of The Ahkoond OF Swat,
which it would be insult to his immortality to
suppose that any present day reader does not know
Perhaps this is overestimatng the familiarity of
the present day reader with of the best things
written Yesterday If so, it is a pity; for the
world could afford trade Oft hundred thousand
of it's ordinary wiseacres, any time, for of its
wits, and gain by the transaction. George L.
Lanigan who died about quarter OF a century ago,
wrote The Ahkoond of Swat. He also wrote
lot of Fables" that whole continent laughing.
Here is one which might have been written In the
present year. 1t is entitled
The VERSATILE CHAMELEON WILD Ass
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