[ Herman Finck, composer and conductor. ] Unpublished corrected typescript of 'some things of humour that I remember', titled 'Life's Little laughs', with references to George R. Sims, J. Hickory Wood, Arthur Roberts, Alfred Plumpton.

[1] + 19pp., 4to. Unbound, on leaves attached with a brass stud. Title-page reads: 'LIFE'S LITTLE LAUGHS. | BY | HERMAN FINCK.' In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. The introduction reads: 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Cry, and the world laughs at you. Here then let me set down some things of humour that I remember, some of my own which have appealed to my friends, some of my friends' which have appealed to me. Let this suffice for introduction, for it is better to be brief than tedious.' The first story concerns the pun 'bolshie far niente', told 'on the front at Folkestone', during 'all these threats of coal strikes and electricians' strikes and all sorts of labour troubles going on'. Next comes the story of a 'bad joke' told by Finck at a dinner party, when a 'man with no sense of humour' took a cigar 'and put it up to his ear and crackled it, in the way that connoisseurs affect': '"Why," asked one of the ladies, "does a man always put a cigar to his ear like that?" | "He's listening to the band," I said. | Approving chuckles.' The next anecdote is: 'George R. Sims is very apt with his witticisms. Some years ago when I was writing in conjunction with the late J. Hickory Wood, the well known librettist, I wanted a title for a dance . . Sims is always very good at titles, so I wrote to him and asked him to suggest some. | "Why trouble me for dance titles?" he replied at once. "Why not ask TerpsHickory Wood?"' This takes us to the end of the third page. There follow references to 'Arthur Roberts, with his nimble wit' ('the volatile Arthur'), a 'Lancashire friend', 'the sale of the Palace Theatre to a cinema company', 'the Westminster Abbey Restoration Fund', 'music hall artistes', 'Alfred Plumpton, the late conductor at the Palace', a 'distinguished actress', 'a firm of music publishers', 'Tree, that great wag', 'the old Long Bar at the Criterion'.