--- 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: 9 number: 1 published: 1905-11 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* 9, no. 1 (November 1905): 68–69.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0901unse 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: improvementera0901unse start_page: 68 end_page: 69 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1905-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0901unse publication_year: 1905 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 1905, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # In Lighter Mood — — ' : " — ' IN LIGHTER MOOD. through the While King Alfonse of Spain was riding with President Loubet streets of Paris a bomb was thrown at him. Thereupon, says the New York Times, the following discourse took place "Whom are they after?" queried the Spanish monarch. And the president replied, in the choicest Parisian: ' ' 'After you, my dear Alfonse. A sense of humor and a delicate compliment was that of a Holton boy who was lying in a hospital. The pretty nurse overheard him exclaim, "Oh, my Lord!" Wishing to rebuke him kindly, she came to his bedside and said: "I think that I heard you call upon the name of the Lord. I am one of his daughters. Is there anything I can do for you?" He looked up into her lovely face, and with every mark of respect and admiration remarked, "Yes, ask him how he would like me for a son-in-law. " The Holton Record. "What passed between yourself and the complainant?" inquired the magis- trate in a county court. "I think, sor," replied the worthy Mr. O'Brien, "a half dozen bricks and a lump of paving-stone." In Irish Wit and Humor Mr. William Harvey gives another anecdote of the Irishman's readiness in the court of law: "Now, Pat," said a magistrate to an old offender, "What brought you here again?" "Two policemen, sor," was the laconic reply. "Drunk, I suppose?" queried the magistrate. "Yes, sor, " said Pat, "both av thim. — Youth's Companion. Bishop Doane of Albany was at one time rector of an Episcopal church in Hartford, and the services at this church Mark Twain would occasionally attend. Twain one Sunday played a joke upon the rector. "Dr. Doane," he said, at the end of the service, 'I enjoyed your sermon this morning. ' I welcomed it like an ' old friend. I have, you know, a book at home containing every word of it. ' ' ' 'You have not, ' said Dr. Doane. ' 'I have so, ' said the humorist. ' 'Well, send the book to me. I'd like to see it." "I'll send it," Twain replied. And he sent next morning an unabridged dictionary to the rector. Hartford Post. News comes from Southern Kansas that a boy climbed a cornstalk to see how the sky and clouds looked and that now the stalk is growing faster than the boy can climb down. The boy is clear out of sight. Three men have taken the con- tract for cutting down the stalk with axes to save the boy a horrible death by starving, but the stalk grows so rapidly that they can't hit twice in the same place. The boy is living on green corn alone and has already throwm down over four bushels of cobs. Even if the corn holds out there is still danger that the boy will reach a height where he will be frozen to death. There is some talk of at- tempting his rescue with a balloon. Topeka Capital. : : OUR WORK.