AURORA BOREALIS, OR FLASHES OF WIT: CALCULATED TO DROWN DULL CARE AND ERADICATE THE BLUE DEVILS. WITH ORIGINAL ETCHINGS, DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY D. C. JOHNSTON. Published in Boston, BY THE EDITOR OF THE GALAXY OF WIT. 1831. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1831, by NATHANIEL H. WHITAKER, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts. Printed by J. H. A. Frost, Boston. ANECDOTES. JOSEPH LANCASTER. When Mr. Joseph Lancaster had finished his lecture, from the chair of the house of representatives, in the U. S., Mr. Clay, the speaker, complimented him, saying that the chair had never before been filled so well. Mr. Lancaster very modestly replied, that man, in his purest aspect, was but a very humble instrument in the hands of a higher Power; the chair he had just filled, exalted as it was, had not been filled with any thing better than Clay. HOW TO CATCH A SPARK. An elderly lady, expressing her surprise at the present fashions, observed that, now-a-days, there was not any display of dress, the present mode tending only to show the shape, not to set off the attire, and wondered that the ladies should ever have relinquished hoops and stiff brocade, for muslin dresses, like tinder. A gentleman remarked, this was done probably to catch the sparks. PUFFS. When Mrs. Robinson published her Sappho and Phaon, she wrote to Mr. Boaden, the newspaper editor "Mrs. Robinson would thank her friend Boaden for a dozen PUFFS for Sappho and Phaon." By a mistake of the penny-post, this note was de livered to Mr. Bowden the pastry-cook, in the Strand, who sent this answer- "Mr. Bowden's respectful compliments to Mrs. Robinson, and should be very happy to serve her; but as she is not a regular customer, he cannot send the puffs for the young folks without receiving the money.' A PRIOR ENGAGEMENT. Mr. Goodall, a learned assistant at Eton, the morning he married Miss Prior, daughter to one of the assistants, attended (to the astonishment of the scholars) his duty as a master. A luckless boy, who played truant, pleaded, as an excuse for his absence, that he really thought Mr. Goodall had had a prior engagement. SCOFFER. A young officer scoffed at the parade of study, to which clergymen assigned their right to remuneration for labor; and he offered to make a bet he would preach half an hour on any verse, or section of a verse, in the Old or New Testament. Mr. Morrison took the bet, and pointed out, "And the ass opened his mouth, and he spake." The officer declined employing his eloquence on that text. Mr. M. won the bet, and silenced the scorner. A SEVERE REBUKE. A spark had noticed, at a public place, a pretty looking girl, who, he thought, would be an easy prey; and he, without ceremony, addressed her, but met with a severe rebuke; this so disconcerted him, that, in his confusion, he could but just utter-"Well, well, but do not swallow me." "O no," said the young woman, with a significant smile, "you need not fear that; I am a Jewess, and am not allowed to eat pork." |
