The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jokes For All Occasions, by Anonymous

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Title: Jokes For All Occasions
Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers

Author: Anonymous

Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21084]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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JOKES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

SELECTED AND EDITED BY ONE OF AMERICA'S FOREMOST PUBLIC SPEAKERS

[Illustration: Publisher's logo]

NEW YORK
EDWARD J. CLODE

COPYRIGHT, 1921, 1922, BY

EDWARD J. CLODE

_Printed in the United States of America_

JOKES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

PREFACE

The ways of telling a story are as many as the tellers themselves. It is
impossible to lay down precise rules by which any one may perfect
himself in the art, but it is possible to offer suggestions by which to
guide practise in narration toward a gratifying success.

Broadly distinguished, there are two methods of telling a story. One
uses the extreme of brevity, and makes its chief reliance on the point.
The other devotes itself in great part to preliminary elaboration in the
narrative, making this as amusing as possible, so that the point itself
serves to cap a climax. In the public telling of an anecdote the tyro
would be well advised to follow the first method. That is, he should put
his reliance on the point of the story, and on this alone. He should
scrupulously limit himself to such statements as are absolutely
essential to clear understanding of the point. He should make a careful
examination of the story with two objects in mind: the first, to
determine just what is required in the way of explanation; the second,
an exact understanding of the point itself. Then, when it comes to the
relating of the story, he must simply give the information required by
the hearers in order to appreciate the point. As to the point itself, he
must guard against any carelessness. Omission of an essential detail is
fatal. It may be well for him, at the outset, to memorize the conc