Tom Johnson claims that the oldest joke is the one about the Irish soldier who saw a shell coming and made a low bow. The shell missed him and took off the head of the man behind him. "Sure," said Pat, "ye never knew a man to lose anything by being polite."
EUROPEAN WAR
War is evidently a losing game when it takes a country forty-two years to pay for what she destroyed in a little more than four.
A dusky doughboy, burdened under tons of medals and miles and miles of ribbons, service and wound chevrons, stars et al., encountered a 27th Division scrapper in Le Mans a few days prior to the division's departure for the States.
"Whar yo' all ben scrappin' in dis yar war, boss?" meekly inquired the colored soldier.
"Why, we've been fighting up in Belgium and Flanders with the British," replied the New Yorker, proudly.
"Well, we ben down in dem woods—watcha call 'em woods 'way down south."