Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-01-21
Misesllaasuus 8saains.
TRAVELS OF A JOKE.
Once Started Men Steal Them and
Pass Them as Their Own.

tatherS S-HOly WIFI Slyle VI say ihe
that a man was dead-and had contin'
ued to ladle out his wisdom to the
generation now in business or on vaca-
ton he might still be writing or re-
writing or thinking of that paragraph
somewhere in the first chapter of Ec-
clesiastes, towit: The thing that hath
been, it is that shall be-
There is no new thing under
the SUM-"
And Solomon wrote this when he
had seen a whole lot. 1t was at the
close of his splendid and eventful ca
reer as monarch of Israel.
If still living, and if he read the
funny" departments of the publica-
tions of the day-dailies, weeklies
monthlies apd quarterlies-he would
probably add especially in jokes"
Dearly beloved, as the minister fire.
quently begins the announcement OF
his text, this will not be sermon, ar
ticle or essay on the antiquity of any
one Joke or bunch of jokes, rearrang-
ed, reconstructed or refurnished and
sold at schedule rates.
1t is a story of story, its origin and
travels and of it's temperance to the
man who created it as he made pill
grimages up and down this verdant
earth.
A travelling correspondent Of really
great newspaper was returning from q
journey that had taken him far from
the home office. By some slip he had
failed to connect with through train
on the Chicago and Northwestern rail-
road. He boarded the next train,
which was some sort of local mix-up
with a chair car attachment. The en-
gineer was doing his best to make good
lot of lost time.
The correspondent was hungry. He
had travelled over the line many times
and knew that there was an eating
house at the station not far ahead. In
a moment of starvation he hailed
the sable whiskbroom wielder, who
was even then in a state of gleeful an
ticipation of the time when he would
reduce the funds Of the lone occupant
of the coach.
Does this train stop at Harvard?'
gasped the solitary traveller.
mo, sab. she don't even hesitate"
The answer was as quick as the
powder flash that makes snapshot
saleable. 1t was a hair-trigger return
It's originality was not debatable. The
ebony CRATER didn't know it, but ne
started something that beat Puck's
scheme of putting a girdle round about
the earth without, Of course, any ex-
pectation of beating Puck's proposed
time.
This story started ever so many
years ago. The correspondent put his
head against the toweled rest of the
chair and closed his eyes. The Sene-
gambian reply stuck in his brain like
feather in a bucket Of tar. 1t appeared
in the next Sunday issue Of the corre-
spondent's paper 1t hit the town
and a big city it was as far back as
that-Chicago. Before night the story
was read and told in hotels and clubs.
Did you ever hear Of Billy Mason,
United States senator from Illinois? He
was familiarly called Billy before ne
put on the toga. and 1t sticks to him
He caught a good story quicker thar
the champion behind the bat. He knew
such a story on sight, and when ne
repeated it you thought it was original
with him. He took this Senegambiar
story as a fish takes the fly. Or as q
woodpeckar surprises a worm.
The story got another send-off in
Washington newspaper. The paragraph
began Senator Billy Mason, of Illinois
while in the cloakroom today told new
story" Then followed the Senegam-
bian reply, and of course, Senator Ma
son was the traveller to whom the reply
was made.
The correspondent was hurried tc
Galveston, Texas. While waiting fol
his johnnycake for breakfast he looked
over a morning print of the city.
read that Representative Bailey (ht
was not then senator) arrived in th'
city last night from Washington. He
got here twelve hours sooner than M
expected because his train did no
hesitate" Then the story as told by
Representative Bailey, what the porter
of his car said to him, etc.
The correspondent thought it wa!
about time for him to rope the yarr
before it went any further. He elabor'
ated the yarn and rushed it to New
York publication that was then paying
five cents "the word" for good origina
stories. A few weeks later he received
a check for $5 and something over
enough to pay exchange.
The story was in the first person
singular, and the writer's name wa
printed at the bottom. He looked a
himself in a mirror and his face re
minded him of something he had hearC
about a certain little Jack Horner. HI
reckoned that he had that story lashe'
to the mast at last.
Something happened in Philadelphi;
and he was sent there to unravel suci
an unusual thing. 1t was the day
Mr.. Bok's publication of that wonder
full mix of high brow fiction, layouts
lingeries and stories of Famous People
The story of colored porter of Pull
man sleeper" as related by Senate
Depew, was the Abou Ben Adem of tn
page.
The correspondent CHANGED to loo
at a calendar. 1t was the day befor
New Year. He sat downand wrote nj
wife: Il shall swear off tomorrow, no
to drink any more, for drink neve
do but never again to make funn
story. 1 can't run counter to Chaunce
Depew. He has kidnapped my first borr
and there's no USE
A few weeks later he was in Detroit
the city made famous by NJ Quad an
Mayor Pingree. He read in the Ere
r-oes. "Nr tho well-knOwn StOr