Theke is no more truly deserving object of pity than the would-be wit who is obliged laboriously to explain his own joke to an unappreciative audience. We sincerely regret that our innocent and well-meant inquiry as to the meaning of the adjective “black,” as applied to the Budget, should have subjected the author of what, it now appears, was intended for a joke, to the humiliating necessity of having to make an explanation a column and a half in length. One is irresistibly reminded of that hapless Scot who candidly confessed that he “ jocked wi deeficulty.” A joke that requires an explanation a column and a half long must clearly belong to a different order of wit from that whose “soul” is “brevity.”
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8463, 11 August 1888, Page 4
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123Untitled New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8463, 11 August 1888, Page 4
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