READERSVOICE.COM aims to provide a few samples from interesting out of print books. This issue features jokes from a small red hardback entitled Bubble and Squeak by “The Tatler Man”.

The book was a first edition. There was no publication date recorded in this copy. But there were some advertisements for the book in English newspapers from 1927. So maybe publication was around that time.   

Tatler was a UK weekly, covering supposedly high society as well as general society trends. It ran from 1901-1965. Then it became London Life during the swinging sixties.

Here are some jokes from Bubble and Squeak:

The lawyer fixed his glasses on his nose and gazed sternly at his client. “Did you present your account to the defendant?” he snapped out. “I did,” was the reply. “Well, and what did he say?’ inquired the lawyer. “He told me to go to the devil,” said his client. “Well, and what did you do then?” asked the other sharply. “Why, came straight to you,” was the terse reply.

A schoolmaster in Scotland was giving his class a lesson in history, and at the conclusion started to ask them questions. “Why was Mary Queen of Scots born at Linlithgow?’ he asked of one small boy. “Because her mither was staying ther,” was the disconcerting reply.

After retiring from his job as a waiter, he bought a small house in the country in which to settle down. Soon after he went to live there he was appointed sidesman [who takes the collection of donations among other duties] in the village church. However, on the first day of his duties old associations proved too much for him, for, as he presented the plate to an old lady in the rear pew, he asked in a hoarse but distinct whisper, “Thick or clear, madam?”

The warden of a certain penal institution paid a call to one of the inmates. “I understand you were imprisoned on account of a glowing mining prospectus,” he said. “Yes,” admitted the prisoner, “I was quite optimistic.” “Well,” continued the other, “the governor wants a report on conditions in this gaol, and I want you to write it.”

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-readersvoice.com