“The sentry scrambled to his feet.
“‘Good gracious!’ he exclaimed. ‘Hold the pie, will you, while I present arms!’”
A player for many years associated with the late Richard Mansfield relates that one day in Philadelphia, as he was standing by a huge poster in front of the theater a poster that represented Mansfield in the character of “Henry V.,” a man who was strolling by stopped to gaze at the bill. Finally, with a snort of disgust, he muttered as he turned to go:
“‘Henry V.—’ what?”
“There is an old negro down in my town,” said John Sharp Williams, the former Democratic leader of the House, “who did me a service. I wanted to reward him, so I said:
“‘Uncle, which shall I give you—a ton of coal or a bottle of whisky?’
“‘Foh de Lo’d, Massa John,’ he replied, ‘you-all shorely knows I buhn wood.’”