Word: offing
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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A flock of geese resided.
Doubtless an experienced critic in examining our attempts at drollery would say at once that they were strained, unnatural, from the fact that clearness of style, consistency of thought, in short, all the requisites of finished work, had been sacrificed to the one idea of saying something funny.
Like beauty ill-attired, our humor clothed in uncouth and meaningless phrases is undiscovered. True, with our limited experience, and wit perhaps, we can hardly expect our efforts to bear even a favorable comparison with the elaborately finished work of a Holmes or Warner, whose humor seldom offends in essence...
Nothing will more surely destroy the effect of a humorous story than ill-restrained laughter on the part of the narrator. If a writer would divest his article of all poignancy, he has only to show by his repetitions and redundant expressions that he is fully impressed with a conviction...
If the writer shows to the public either by open avowal or otherwise, that he considers himself competent to lead it along the highway of jollity, it will immediately draw down its face, ridicule his assumption, and refuse to recognize his ability; if, on the other hand, he brings his...