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The harp of a thousand strings, or, Laughter for a lifetime. Avery, Samuel Putnam, (1822–1904).
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THE HARP OF A THOUSAND STRINGS; OR, Laughter for a Lifetime.
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KONCEIVED, COMPILED, AND KOMICALLY KONKOKTED, BY SPAVERY AIDED, ADDED, AND ABETTED BY OVER 200 KURIOUS KUTZ, FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS KAREFULLY DRAWN OUT BY MC'LENAN HOPPIN, DARLEY, HENNESSEY, BELLEW, GUNN, HOWARD, &c., TO SAY NOTHING OF LEECH, PHIZ, DOYLE, CRUICKSHANK, MEADOWS, HINE, AND OTHERS.

The Whole Engraved BY

S. P. AVERY.

NEW YORK: DICK & FITZGERALD, PUBLISHERS, No. 18 ANN STREET.

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by SAMUEL P. AVERY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

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PREFACE,

OR PRELIMINARY TUNING OF THE "HARP OF A THOUSAND STRINGS"

A PREFACE!" exclaims the reader. "Certainly—why not? Good acquaintances are seldom formed without proper introduction—so a good book is never without a preface." "True, but why need a preface when the book is but as the moon, brilliant from borrowed light?" "There we join issue. It has lustre of its own. It is not the mere jumbling together of jokes, stories, quips, and cranks, that in this enlightened, railroad, and electric telegraph-reading age, will enable a book to pass muster.

No, there must be judgment, discretion, liberality, and we may say truly, taste, in stringing together the literary, artistic, and jocular page: iv-v[View Page iv-v] lar pearls composing books like the present, so as to render the perusal palatable, and something for every palate. Shall we be presumptuous enough to say we have done this? If we have succeeded, the knowledge of gaining the approbation of our numerous readers, who condescend to peruse these "trifles light as air," the consciousness of rising a smile—a laugh—an infectious laugh, in the toilsome journey through life, will well and amply reward us. At any rate, the reader can truly say of the compiler, [View Figure]

HE'S SKATERING FOR THE PUBLIC AMUSEMENT.

We would fain convert this "Vale of Tears" into the realms of mirth and sunny smiles, kill care in a laugh; lighten the heart; sharpen the wits; and set the whole world, not by the ears, but in one PERPETUAL BROAD GRIN from (Y)ear to (Y)ear!

We would exhort all unfortunate mortals who lean to melancholy, to apply at once to our "HARP" and from its soothing tones they will receive immediate relief from the worst attack of the blues, and learn to "Laugh and grow fat."

In conformity with these good hopes and inclinations, and being, as we ever are, in a merry vein, trusting our efforts will not be in vain, we have invoked all the choice spirits, not of w(h)ine, but wit, whom we have met with—ardent spirits of our own—and prepared A FEAST OF HUMOR AND DELICIOUS DROLLERY, to which we invite all and everybody.

To the banquet, then, dear public. THE BILL OF FARE is before you; take your choice of the savory viands so abundantly provided for you. Every delicacy in season graces our festive board; our sheets form an appropriate table-cloth; turn to our pages, and before you take your leaves, dear friends, you will be sure to meet with your deserts—and for music—surely among our "THOUSAND STRINGS" one cheerful tune will be found to please you.

Impressed with the force of his own arguments, the purveyor of the present entertainment ment, has attempted this epilogue; in which, he trusts he has not presumed upon the usual leniency of after-dinner criticism; and that none of his readers are of the delightful class of censors, who flourish a flail to demolish a cobweb—who indulge in proving, by very elaborate and profound arguments, that there is no use in
  • "Mirth that wrinkled care derides,
  • And Laughter holding both his sides!"
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 or who occasionally go so far, in fits of ultra fastidiousness, as to cross an author's t and dot an i for him.

S. P. A.

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CONTENTS.

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