That Reminds Me: A Collection of Tales Worth Telling

That Reminds Me
A Collection of Tales Worth Telling
Show me a Nation's humor, and I will show you its civilization.
Philadelphia GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO. Publishers
COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY GEORGE W. JACOBS & Co. Published, October, 1905 .
BY THE WAY
If nonsense is to wisdom near allied and truth is often spoken in a jest, which are facts known to very casual observers, there is much more than the passing laugh to be derived from such a collection of anecdote, repartee, and pleasantry as that gathered together in this volume.
For some years the Public Ledger of Philadelphia, and earlier the Philadelphia Times , before the two journals were united, have offered premiums for contributions to a column of jests called Tales Worth Telling. With the permission of Mr. George W. Ochs of the Public Ledger , the best of these are now collected and published in permanent form for a wider audience in the belief that they will be enjoyed beyond the confines of the newspaper's community and for longer than the day for which it is made and serves its purposes.
There is much Americanism in these Tales. They have the flavor of our soil; the relish of our nationality. While some are plants of foreign growth removed to our atmosphere in which they have taken on a new appearance, there are touches of human nature and character in all of them.
If all these anecdotes seem not to be equally laugh-provoking, it is the fate of anecdotes. They are meant for different minds; they have different objects. If any shall teach a lesson, or point a moral while it at the same time fetches a smile, its purpose will not be lost.
Such humor, springing, as it does, from the people, much of it being caught at first hands from those who invented it to be transcribed for the newspaper in which it first appeared and now to be preserved in this volume, illustrates many important truths in our American character. Let that not be forgotten! Show me a nation's humor and I will show you its civilization, is a sentiment worthy to become a proverb. There is hope for the man or the race of men which is gifted with the sense of humor if the mind and lips remain clean and reverent.