Show I I WOMANLY WIT A Few Specimens from a New Collection Col-lection Miss Kate Sanborn the wellknown lecturer and author who recently received irom Mr Gordon W Burnham a legacy of 50000 and who was engaged to be married to that gentleman at the time of his death has written a decidedly interesting inter-esting book entitled Wit of Women The anthers object was to make a compilation compi-lation of all that she could recollect or gather of the witty sayings and writings of women Miss Sanborns estimate of I other womanwriters will be of interest to many Of one she says Grace Greenwood Green-wood has probably made more puns in j print than any other woman and her I conversation is fultof them It was Grace j Greenwood who at a Boston teadrink j I ing party was begged t < tell one more i story but excused herself in this way I cannot get more than one story high on a cup of tea When the question was brought up at the same party whether better speeches would be made after simple tea and toast or after champagne and oysters Miss May Wadsworth replied re-plied that it would depend on whether the oysters were cooked or raw And seeing all look blank she explained Because Be-cause if raw we should have a rawoyster ing time Miss Sanborn thinks that Miss Louisa lI Alcotts puns deserve honorable mention and quotes one I steamers are named the Asia the Russia and the Scotia why not name one the Nausea Miss Sedgwick her letters occasion ally showed a keen sense of humor as when speaking of a certain novel she said There is too much force for the subject I is as i a railroad should be built and a locomotive started to transport trans-port skeletons and one bird of paradise Of Phoebe Gary Her most brilliant bril-liant sallies were perfectly unpremeditated unpremedit-ated and by herself never repeated 0 remembered re-membered When she was in her best moods they came like flashes of heat lightning like the rush of meteors so suddenly and constantly you were dazzled while you were delighted and afterward found it difficult to single out any distinct flash or separate one meteor from the multitude This most wonderful wonder-ful of her gifts can only be represented by a few stray sentences gleaned from the faithful memories of loving friends One tells at a little party where fun rose to a great height a quiet person was suddenly attacked by a gay lady with the question Why dont you laugh 1 You sit there just like a post There she called you a post why dont you rail at her was Phoebes quiet exclamation C On one occasion Phoebe was at the museum looking at the curiosities says Mr Barnum I preceded her and had passed down a couple of steps She in tly watching a big anaconda in a case at the top of the stairs walked off not noticing them and fell I was just in twP to catch her in my arms and save her from a good bruising I am more lucky than that first woman that fell through the influence of the serpent said Phoebe a she recovered herself |