At a dinner, when the gentlemen retired to the smoking room and one of the guests, a Japanese, remained with the ladies, one asked him: 

“Aren’t you going to join the gentlemen, Mr. Nagasaki?”

“No.  I do not smoke, I do not swear, I do not drink.  But then, I am not a Christian.”

A traveler who believed himself to be sole survivor of a shipwreck upon a cannibal isle hid for three days, in terror of his life.  Driven out by hunger, he discovered a thin wisp of smoke rising from a clump of bushes inland, and crawled carefully to study the type of savages about it.  Just as he reached the clump he heard a voice say:  “Why in hell did you play that card?” He dropped on his knees and, devoutly raising his hands, cried: 

“Thank God they are Christians!”

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

“As you don’t seem to know what you’d like for Christmas, Freddie,” said his mother, “here’s a printed list of presents for a good little boy.”

Freddie read over the list, and then said: 

“Mother, haven’t you a list for a bad little boy?”

  ’Twas the month after Christmas,
  And Santa had flit;
  Came there tidings for father
  Which read:  “Please remit!”

  —­R.L.F.

Little six-year-old Harry was asked by his Sunday-school teacher: 

“And, Harry, what are you going to give your darling little brother for Christmas this year?”

“I dunno,” said Harry; “I gave him the measles last year.”

  For little children everywhere
    A joyous season still we make;
  We bring our precious gifts to them,
    Even for the dear child Jesus’ sake.

  —­Phebe Cary.

  I will, if you will,
    devote my Christmas giving to the children and the needy,
      reserving only the privilege of, once in a while,
        giving to a dear friend a gift which then will have
          the old charm of being a genuine surprise.

  I will, if you will,
    keep the spirit of Christmas in my heart, and,
      barring out hurry, worry, and competition,
        will consecrate the blessed season, in joy and love,
          to the One whose birth we celebrate.

  —­Jane Porter Williams.

CHRONOLOGY

TOURIST—­“They have just dug up the corner-stone of an ancient library in Greece, on which is inscribed ‘4000 B.C.’”

ENGLISHMAN—­“Before Carnegie, I presume.”

CHURCH ATTENDANCE

“Tremendous crowd up at our church last night.”

“New minister?”

“No it was burned down.”

“I understand,” said a young woman to another, “that at your church you are having such small congregations.  Is that so?”

“Yes,” answered the other girl, “so small that every time our rector says ‘Dearly Beloved’ you feel as if you had received a proposal!”