These are simple catches, in which the sense is playfully cheated, and are generally founded upon words capable of double meaning. The following are examples:
Where did Charles the First's executioner dine, and what did he
take?
He took a chop at the King's Head.
When is a plant to be dreaded more than a mad dog?
When it's madder.
What is majesty stripped of its externals?
It is a jest.
[The m and the y, externals, are taken away.]
Why is hot bread like a caterpillar?
Because it's the grub that makes the butter fly.
Why did the accession of Victoria throw a greater damp over England than the death of King William?
Because the King was missed (mist) while the Queen was
reigning (raining).
Why should a gouty man make his will?
To have his legatees (leg at ease).
Why are bankrupts more to be pitied than idiots?
Because bankrupts are broken, while idiots are only cracked.
Why is the treadmill like a true convert?
Because it's turning is the result of conviction.
When may a nobleman's property be said to be all feathers?
When his estates are all entails (hen-tails).
Every Man Knows Where His Own Shoe Pinches.
57. Cryptography, or secret writing
from the Greek
cryptos
, a secret, and
graphein
, to write—has been largely employed in state despatches, commercial correspondence, love epistles, and riddles. The telegraphic codes employed in the transmission of news by electric wire, partakes somewhat of the cryptographic character, the writer employing certain words or figures, the key to which is in the possession of his correspondent. The single-word despatch sent by Napier to the Government of India, was a sort of cryptographic conundrum—