Choate answered affably:
"You're a cab, sir."
The diplomat indignantly went to the host and explained that a servant had insulted him. He pointed to Choate. Explanations ensued, and the diplomat was introduced to the American, to whom he apologized.
"That's all right," declared Choate, smiling. "If you had been better-looking, I'd have called you a hansom cab."
PUZZLE
The humorist offered his latest invention in the way of a puzzle to the assembly of guests in the drawing-room:
"Can you name an animal that has eyes and cannot see; legs and cannot walk, but can jump as high as the Woolworth Building?"
Everybody racked his brains during a period of deep silence, and racked in vain. Finally, they gave it up and demanded the solution. The inventor of the puzzle beamed.
"The answer," he said, "is a wooden horse. It has eyes and cannot see, and legs and cannot walk."