The So-called Human Race

Newspaper slips, reader contributions and pointed little verses give Bert Leston Taylor plenty of material for teasing everyday habits. This collection draws on his Chicago Tribune column, where a wedding report, an awkward phrase or an unusual name could become the starting point for a joke. Henry B. Fuller's foreword describes the shared enterprise behind the column, with readers sending in observations and Taylor shaping them alongside his own paragraphs and jingles.

Taylor's attention often falls on language itself. Inflated reporting, fashionable slang and tired expressions receive the same close scrutiny as public figures and domestic disagreements. The extracts move from exaggerated praise of Medicine Hat's climate to local notices whose wording produces unintended comedy. Readers interested in newspaper humor can see how much a brief comment or a change of context can do, while the mixture of prose and verse makes room for frequent shifts in tone.