Chapter I: Introduction

It is refreshing to find an unworked field all ready for harvesting.

While the wit of men, as a subject for admiration and discussion, is now threadbare, the wit of women has been almost utterly ignored and unrecognized.

With the joy and honest pride of a discoverer, I present the results of a summer's gleaning.

And I feel a cheerful and Colonel Sellers-y confidence in the success of the book, for every woman will want to own it, as a matter of pride and interest, and many men will buy it just to see what women think they can do in this line. In fact, I expect a call for a second volume!

KATE SANBORN.
HANOVER, N.H., August, 1885.

My thanks are due to so many publishers, magazine editors, and personal friends for material for this book, that a formal note of acknowledgment seems meagre and unsatisfactory. Proper credit, however, has been given all through the volume, and with special indebtedness to Messrs. Harper & Brothers and Charles Scribner's Sons of New York, and Houghton, Mifflin & Co. of Boston. I add sincere gratitude to all who have so generously contributed whatever was requested.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE MELANCHOLY TONE OF WOMEN'S POETRY--PUNS, GOOD
AND BAD--EPIGRAMS AND LACONICS--CYNICISM OF FRENCH
WOMEN--SENTENCES CRISP AND SPARKLING 13

CHAPTER II.

HUMOR OF LITERARY ENGLISHWOMEN 32

CHAPTER III.

FROM ANNE BRADSTREET TO MRS. STOWE 47

CHAPTER IV.

"SAMPLES" HERE AND THERE 67

CHAPTER V.

A BRACE OF WITTY WOMEN 85

CHAPTER VI.

GINGER-SNAPS 103

CHAPTER VII.

PROSE, BUT NOT PROSY 122

CHAPTER VIII.

HUMOROUS POEMS 150

CHAPTER IX.

GOOD-NATURED SATIRE 179