believe that we are joking (Clemens 5). This point is well illustrated by the fearless Twain in this excerpt from Mark Twain's Jest Book: In the spring of 1899, I was one of a crowd of some 1200 who attended at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York to hear a lecture on his adventures in the South Africa War given by a Lieutenant of Huzzars, one Winston Churchill - and the chair was occupied by Mark Twain. I remember it so well, and the deafening applause which greeted the old gentlemen when he rose to make his introductory speech. When, a long last, silence reigned, his opening sentence staggered me. He began like this: Fellow thieves and robbers! and when the roars of astonished laughter subsided, he continued, I take it that this audience consists of English people and Americans, so I commence my remarks, fellow thieves and robbers - the Americans in the Philippines and the English in South Africa. And more laughter followed when he said But never mind, we're kith and kin in war and sin. -Cyril Clemens (Cle
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