are offered for your choice, with subjects as diverse as the styles; but however the laugh is gained, in whatever fashion the jest is delivered, the laugh-maker is a public benefactor, for laughter is the salt of life, and keeps the whole dish sweet.

   Merrily yours,

    Marshall P. Wilder

   .

    Atlantic City

   , 1908.

   Acknowledgment is due to the following publishers, whose permission was cordially granted to reprint selections which appear in this collection of American humor.

    Ainslee's Magazine

   for "Not According to Schedule," by Mary Stewart Cutting.

    The Henry Altemus Company

   for "The New Version," by William J. Lampton.

    The American Publishing Company

   for "How We Bought a Sewin' Machine and Organ," from

    Josiah Allen's Wife as a P.A. and P.I.

   , by Marietta Holley.

   D.

    Appleton & Company

   for "The Recruit," from

    With the Band

   , by Robert W. Chambers.

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