A Slender Volume....

...even in 1903. And, the humor and wit is hard to find, the best of the lot seems to be a complicated story Abraham Lincoln told a some office seekers about a Chinese emperor hiring a donkey as an advisor.

"And would you believe it?" observed President Lincoln, with a sly twinkle in his eye, "as soon as that proclamation became public, every jackass in the kingdom wanted an office".

Enough said- lovely cover, though. It was ever thus.