Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1870 — Repartee. [ARTICLE]

Repartee.

Titers are some persons who seem to be endowed with an electric current of wit, which sparkles and flashes when it meets an opposing one ; and a ready wit, or tbe faculty of making quick and spicy repartee is a valuable gift, and the source of much pleasure, provided it is used with a due regard to the feelings of others. A man of genuine wit and humor may attach to himself many warm and devoted friends; but a sarcastic, cynical person is always an uncomfortable companion. It is related that, as some friends of Campbell, the author of Hohenlinden, were leaving his room after a late supper, one of the number had the misfortune to fall down a long flight of stairs. The poet, alarmed by the noise, opened the door, and inquired, “What’s that?” “ ’Tis I sir , rolling rapidly,” was the immediate reply of his fallen friend. Bheridan remarked, in parliamentary language, on entering a crowded committee room, “Will some membei; move that'l may take the chair ?’’ Two friends meeting, one remarked, “I have just seen a man who told me I looked exactly like you.” “ Teyl who it was, that I may knock him down,” replied his friend. “ Don’t trouble yourself,” said the other, “ for I did that myself at once.” A physician who was attending Colman during a severe illness apologized to him one morning for coming so late, saying that he was suddenly called to see a man who had fallen into a well. “ Did he kick the bucket, doctor ?” was Column's trite response. A poet asked a friend what he thought of his last production, “An Ode on Sleep.” The latter replied, “You have done such justice to the subject, that it is impossible to read it without feeling its whole weight.” The colored race are not to be outdone in shrewdness of retort. A little cabin boy on board a ship, the captain of which was a religious man, was called up to be flogged lor some misdemeanor. Little Jack appeared before the captain weeping bitterly, and falling upon Ms knees he cried, “Pray, sir, will you wait till I have said my prayers V’ “ Certainly I will,” replied the captain. “ Well, then,” said Jack, looking up triumphantly, “ I’ll say them when I get ashore /” During the late war, a colored clergyman, feelipg constrained to preach against the extortions of the sutlers, from which his little flock had suffered, announced for his text, “Now de serpent was more sutler dan any beast of de field dat de Lord God had made.” A happy and graceful play upon words was once made by our own poet Longfellow. A Mr. Longworth, of Cincinnati, being introduced to him one evening, some one present remarked upon the similarity of the first syllable of the two names. “ Yes,” said ihe courteous poet, “but in this case I fear Pope’s lines will apply : 4 Worth makes the man, and want of It the mLOW ’ ” —Oliver Optic’s Magazine.

An incident is related of the early days of Lafayette, Ind., and William Digby, one of its first settlers, how he and the Hon. John Petitt played cards (“seven ap ”) three consecutive days in the house which the former was moving a distance of half a mile. The arrangement between the players was, that when Digby won, the house should go forward toward its destination, but when Petitt won, it should go bick toward its former location. The fortunes of the game being in equipoise during the first day and a half, the hotlse, although constantly moving, made no progress, but Digby, getting the lead about noon of the second day, kept it till the house reached its new resting place. ? Recently a thief, of the Mawworm tvjpe, said to an English Judge quite confidingly, “ My lord, I really assure you I coni nil tied the theft in a weak moment; quite, indeed, against my own will, my lord, quite.’’ “O, very well,’’ said his lordship; “it is only ri 'ht that you should have no cause for complaint. The offense will lie met, in a proper spirit As'you committed the act agaiust your own will, you will be punished again.-*, your own will. - The annuity of each Indian on the Oaojuiag* itatenftUwi in #15.70..,