BY THE AUTHOR OF
“SPEAKING OF OPERATIONS,” ETC.
A LAUGH A DAY
KEEPS THE DOCTOR
AWAY
His Favorite Stories as Told by
Irvin S. Cobb
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK
GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC.
CL
Copyright, 1923,
By George H. Doran Company
Copyright, 1921,
By the Central Press Association
Copyright, 1922, 1923,
By the McNaught Syndicate, Inc.
A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away.
Printed in the United States of America
To
Three of the Best Story-Tellers I Know:
ROBERT H. DAVIS SAMUEL G. BLYTHE
HAL S. CORBETT
FOREWORD
The anecdotal form of humor is largely, I think, a native institution.Americans did not invent or discover the short humorousstory, it is true. Indeed, some short stories still are making theirrounds which were old when the Pyramids were young. Probablythe piper who piped before Moses rounded out his act with one ofthe standard jokes of the period—a joke which, dressed in newclothes, is doing duty somewhere to-day. The mother-in-law jokecould not have originated with Adam, because Adam had no mother-in-law,but I have not the slightest doubt that Cain began using itshortly after his marriage. And beyond peradventure Father Noahwiled away many a dragging half hour in the Ark by telling Shem,Ham and Japhet one of the ones which begin: “It seems there weretwo Irishmen named Pat and Mike. And Pat said to Mike, ‘Faith,an’ be jabers!—’ ”
So it would not do for us to lay claim to sole responsibility forthe short humorous story. But I am quite certain that we, morethan any other people, have made it a part of our daily life, using itto point morals, to express situations, to help us solve puzzles. Tothese extents, at least, it is a national institution with us.