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Preface
Scotch Wit and Humor is a
fairly representative collection of the type of wit and humor which is
at home north of the Tweed—and almost everywhere else—for are not
Scotchmen to be found everywhere? To say that wit and humor is not a
native of Scotch human nature is to share the responsibility for an
inaccuracy the author of which must have been as unobservant as those
who repeat it. It is quite true that the humor is not always or
generally on the surface—what treasure is?—and it may be true, too, that
the thrifty habits of our northern friends, combined with the
earnestness produced by their religious history, have brought to the
surface the seriousness—amounting sometimes almost to heaviness—which is
their most apparent characteristic. But under the surface will be found
a rich vein of generosity, and a fund of humor, which soon cure a
stranger—if he has eyes to see and is capable of appreciation—of the
common error of supposing that Scotchmen are either stingy or stupid.
True, there may be the
absence of the brilliancy which characterizes much of the English wit
and humor, and of the inexpressible quality which is contained in
Hibernian fun; but for point of neatness one may look far before
discovering anything to surpass the shrewdness and playfulness to be
found in the Scotch race. In fact, if Scotland had no wit and humor she
would have been incapable of furnishing a man who employed such methods
in construction as were introduced by the engineer of the Forth Bridge.
W. H. HOWE.
Electric Scotland Note:
Due to the difficulty of ocr'ing this book we've decided to post it up
page by page as image files. You'll note in the url of the page
we've used the naming convention of scotchwitxxx.htm meaning that the
xxx stands for a page number and so scotchwit13.htm is
the 13th page of the book. This means if you look through the index and
see an item you'd be interested in reading (say on page 106) you just
need to change the url in your browser to scotchwit106.htm and you'll go
directly to that page. Also, on each page you'll get the links to
"Previous Page", "Book Index Page", "Next Page"
in the foot of the page letting you move forward
or back. The first actual page is...
Page 13
should you wish to read from the first
actual page. And here is one of the wee gems in the book...
The Fly-fisher and the Highland Lassie
An English tourist visited Arran, and being
a keen disciple of Isaac Walton, was arranging to have a good day's
sport. Being told that the horse-fly would suit his purpose admirably
for bait, he addressed himself to Christy, the Highland servant-maid. "I
say, my girl, can you get me some horse-flies?"
Christy looked stupid, and he repeated his
question. Finding that she did not yet comprehend him, he exclaimed:
"Why, girl, did you never see a horse-fly?"
"Naa, sir," said the girl; "but a wanse saw
a coo jump over a preshipice."
You can also download the entire book in pdf
format...
Scotch wit and humor
Classified under appropriate subject headings, with, in many cases, a
reference to a table of authors by Walter Henry Howe (1898) (pdf)
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