Ph.—The pocopo is a small Brazilian animal, chiefly remarkable for singularity of diet. A pocopo eats nothing but other pocopos. As these are not easily obtained, the annual mortality from starvation is very great. As a result, there are fewer mouths to feed, and by consequence the race is rapidly multiplying.
F.—From whom had you this?
Ph.—A professor of political economy.
F.—Let us rise and uncover.
Fool—A foreign student of the English language read the report of a colloquy between a fool and a philosopher. The remarks of the fool were indicated by the letter F; those of the philosopher by the letters Ph—as ours will be if Heaven raise up a great, wise man to report them.
Philosopher—Well?
F.—Nothing. Ever thereafter the misguided foreign student spelled “fool” with ph and philosopher with an f.
Ph.—Neo-Platonist!