"Well, aren't you?" inquired the editor.
"No, I'm nothing of the kind, and it's confoundedly awkward, because I'm in the coal business."
MISTAKEN IDENTITY?
A kindergarten teacher entering a street-car saw a gentleman whose face seemed familiar, and she said, "Good evening!"
He seemed somewhat surprised, and she soon realized that she had spoken to a stranger. Much confused, she explained: "When I first saw you I thought you were the father of two of my children."
THIS HAPPENED IN CHICAGO
Some time after the Civil War James Russell Lowell was asked to go to Chicago to deliver a political speech upholding the Republican Party. It was a great occasion, for Russell was easily the foremost literary and political figure of the day, and his coming was widely advertised. But at the last moment, just before the address was to be delivered, for certain political reasons it was deemed inexpedient by the managers of the affair to have Russell talk politics, and so a hurried announcement was made that Mr. Russell, instead of speaking on the issues of the day, would deliver his celebrated lecture on Shakespeare. This he did, it having been correctly described by critics as the best lecture on the great poet ever delivered.
After the lecture was over, however, one of the Chicago politicians, who doubtless had never heard of Shakespeare, was in his disappointment led to exclaim:
"Hum! I suppose he thought anything was good enough for us!"