---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 5
number: 4
published: 1902-02
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "In Lighter Mood," *Improvement Era* 5, no. 4 (February 1902): 313.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0504unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0504unse
start_page: 313
end_page: 313
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1902-02)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0504unse
  publication_year: 1902
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1902, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# In Lighter Mood

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IN LIGHTER MOOD.
"Ah, good morning!" said the early bird to the worm. "Looking
for a job?"
"That's what. Anything I can do for you?"
"Yes, you'll about fill the bill, I think."— Harlem Life.
"I'm sorry to see your crops so blighted, Wurzel," said the sympa-
thizing friend to a farmer.
"Aye, it be a pitty," replied old Wurzel. "But there's one comfort —
neighbor Giles's are a bit worse!" — Tit-Bits.
A certain naval ofiicer was very pompous and conceited when on
duty. One day when he was officer of the watch and he could not, as
usual, find anything of consequence to grumble about, he attempted to
vent his spite on one of the stokers of the vessel, who was in the engine
room on duty.
Going to the speaking-tube the officer yelled, "Is there a blithering
idiot at the end of this tube?''
The reply came quick and startling, "Not at this end, sir!"
The feeling of the officer as he turned away with a black frown can
be better imagined than described."
In a small southern town, a physician recommended to a patient
suffering with indigesti6n, that he should drink hot water about a half
hour before each meal. The doctor was not particular to specify the
quantity of water, thinking his patient would understand that he was
to take an ordinary tumblerful, whereas the patient, who was from the
country and had never before heard of this very common remedy for
dyspeptics, put his own interpretation on the doctor's prescription about
the time. Meeting him in town about a week later, the doctor inquired:
"Well, Brown, how are you getting along with your hot water cure?"
"Well, Doc," replied the yokel, "I tried my dog-gone best, and I couldn't
drink her fur but ten minutes to save me." — Current Literature.