Life — October 21, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

GOING TO HARVEST. gentlemanly attendant in the office, that obliging young man volunteered to go with the visitors and explain the workings of the establishment. “In this room,” said the attendant, open- ing adoor into an apartment where several girls were at work, ‘the finished product is put into envelopes and addressed to the con- sumers, and the adjoining room is devoted to the clerks whose duty it is to arrange the output and distribute it according to the demand.” “Do you, then,” asked Rollo, ‘ make jokes for consumption in particular places which are not salable in others ?"”” “Oh, yes," replied the attendant. ‘For example, jokes about the Chicago girl’s foot and the Chicago divorce habit must all be sold outside of Chicago. In like manner, Philadelphia sternly refuses to buy jokes about its own slowness and sleepiness, but in Philadelphia we can dispose of gags about Chicago, and in Chicago we find a market for gags about Philadelphia. The joke about the Brooklyn papa wheeling his baby along the streets cannot be sold in Brooklyn at all, but ia New York it finds a ready sale. Indeed, I may say that New York is the sole market for that sort of joke, In like manner there are other localities in which certain jokes are in demand, and utterly unsalable in others.” As the attendant talked the three passed oninto the next room, and Rollo used his eyes to good advantage. “* What are those men putting away intin cans on that high shelf ?" he asked. “Those are plumber jokes and skating jokes and Lent jokes, and other witticisms which we failed to sell while they were in season. They are now being hermetically sealed to keep them until next winter, when they will be taken down and polished for the winter trade. In like manner you see here,” said the attendant, as they passed into the next room, ‘aman taking down canscontain- ing summer-girl jokes, bathing-suit jokes, baseball jokes, and the like, which find a * LIFE: market in the summer season only, They will be examined carefully, all cracks will be filled up with plaster of paris, and they will be newly varnished and sent to mar- ket.” “But,” said Rollo, ‘do you not also make jokes here ?”” “Oh, yes," said the at- tendant, opening the door into the next room, where half adozen ma- chines were busily drop- ping jokes into the hoppers at- tached to each machine, with al- most human intelligence. “‘This machine,” said he, ‘is now runniog day and night. It makes an improved kind of bathing-suit joke, which we expect to have agreat run next year. The next machine turas out summer-girl jokes, and so on all around the room. Weill now passinto the refrigerating room, and here you must button your coat closely, for the temperature is purposely kept very low “What do you make here ?” zsked Rollo, shivering from the cold. “This is where we turn out our Christmas jokes, and it is necessary to have the room very cold to give them the proper frigid flavor.” 337 “*But how is it that Christmas jokes are being made now, while other winter jokes are being put away for the summer?” “That is because the Christmas numbers are all made up in midsummer and autumn. It is one of the peculiarities of the business.” “How very strange,” said Rollo, as he and his uncle left the factory, after thanking the attendant for his courtesy. William Henry Siviter. Force of Habit. AT: Begorra, Moike, an’ it's meself as thinks it’s hard work gittin’ up this hill on a wheel! MIKE: Indade an’ it is. Jist stop a minute, won't yez, whoile Oi spit on me feet! . Wolley : EDDIE, DEAR, WHERE ARE our BROWN PLAID KNICKERDOC comicbooks.com