Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1874 — Practical Jokes. [ARTICLE]

Practical Jokes.

Verbal jokes are ofu n crtiel, jokes in I act are nearly always so. and hence the : amusement causctj by the latter is 'not [ unmixed with qualms of conscience, i This is tire casewvith the following joke i said to have been perpetrated by a , Frenchman named Turpin, lb turns on j the belief formerly prevalent that men I might be changed into the lower ordersof ; animals -by enchainment: Turpin was j sauntering along* one Jay with a com- ! panion when they came to a country inn, ■ near which a peasant bad tied his ass to I the hedge and in which he was refreshing j himself with wine. Turpin took the i saddle and bridle off the donkey and ; put them upon himself, while his com panion led tire beast astray. When the peasant, tendered even more - stupid than usual by the wine, came out j of tin; inn Turpth began" to express ina i loud voice hi.' intense joy at being freed from the enchantment and restored to I his natural 'hape. The peasant believed I that the transformation had really taken place, beholding in the man before him i Ids former ass, and, though'grieved to lose I his useful beast, could not of course ! think of detaining him. The donkey was sent to a dealer and ■ was offered for sale in a market, when who should come tip but his former owner! “ Beware!” cried he, “ how you purchase this-assl—He is a man suffe+'+ngfroni enchantment and is liable at any time to resume his former shape. I have lost him once in this way, and 1 warn you against makiDg_sueh_a bargain!" The joke of Beckford, the wealthy but eccentric owner of Font hi 11 Abbey and author of “ Nathek,” was less severe, but it also had a little spice of unkindness. "TwtJ fig me n" w tuF"o ii c e ” enco un t er e d by him inJus grounds, w hich they had entered without permission. Instead of having them turned out, he took them into hi' house, and teasting them sumptu-ou.-iy he --kept them iintii it w;a4 qnite - dark, lie then sent a servant with them to the exact spot white he bad met them, with instructions io leave them there. “As they found their way in,” he said, “ they might find their way out.” The grounds were arranged in that part as a labyrinth, and the probability was that the young men about all night in the vain search for i>n exit. — 1 dVih .*» (.'('Utpitlitvil.