a humorous story--understand, I mean by word of
mouth, not print--was created in America, and has
remained at home.

The humorous story is told gravely; the teller
does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly
suspects that there is anything funny about it; but
the teller of the comic story tells you beforehand
that it is one of the funniest things he has ever
heard, then tells it with eager delight, and is the
first person to laugh when he gets through. And
sometimes, if he has had good success, he is so glad
and happy that he will repeat the "nub" of it and
glance around from face to face, collecting applause,
and then repeat it again. It is a pathetic thing to
see.

Very often, of course, the rambling and disjointed
humorous story finishes with a nub, point, snapper,
or whatever you like to call it. Then the listener
must be alert, for in many cases the teller will divert
attention from that nub by dropping it in a carefully
casual and indifferent way, with the pretense that he
does not know it is a nub.

Artemus Ward used that trick a good deal; then
when the belated audience presently caught the joke
he would look up with innocent surprise, as if won-
dering what they had found to laught at. Dan
Setchell used it before him, Nye and Riley and
others use it to-day.

But the teller of the comic story does not slur
the nub; he shouts it at you--every time. And
when he prints it, in England, France, Germany,
and Italy, he italicizes it, puts some whooping

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