Griggs Courier

WILLIE WINTER'S WIT.

He Was Forgotten Once, But Forgetfulness Is an Excusable Fault.

Willie Winter is one of the wits of the New York press, says Marshall P. Wilder in his new book. He is a very solemn-looking fellow, and I have heard that he confines his humorous exuberance to the columns of the newspaper on whose staff he has been a valuable contributor for a good many years, but the only time I ever heard him speak in public he was quite equal to the occasion. It was a dinner at which General Sherman presided. My name was on the list, but perhaps the General had mislaid his glasses, for instead of calling for Wilder he named Winter. Winter, who had seen the list himself, arose and remarked gravely: "I had found myself almost entirely forgotten here, but General Sherman, who never yet disappointed any expectations which were made of him, looked for me in the person of my esteemed friend, Marshall Wilder. I was not in the least disappointed. I reminded me of an old yarn about a negro preacher who used to open Bible at random when he went into the pulpit, and one day he stumbled on a chapter which is the terror of young people who attempt to commit the Bible to memory, and read as follows: And unto Enoch was born Irad, and Irad forgot Mehujael, and Mehujael forgot Methusael, and Methusael forgot Lamech, and Lamech took unto him two wives and forgot Jabal. Now, my beloved bruddern, dis text am meant to show you firstly dat dem old patriarches dey was mighty forgitful.' Never mind about the rest."