Bill Nye, the sardonic voice of late 19th-century American humor, spins tales that poke fun at the absurdities of modern life with a precision that still stings a century later. This collection opens with the title story, a wickedly funny meditation on confinement: the narrator visits Ludlow Street Jail and discovers, with dark delight, that prison offers something the finest hotels cannot, absolute security and freedom from bills. What follows are sharp vignettes that skewer Broadway pretensions, prophetic piutes, dubious futures, and the peculiar characters who populate America's frontier of ambition. Nye's humor is never mean-spirited, but it is unflinching; he spots the contradiction in every noble institution and the dignity in every fool. Written with the rapid-fire wit that made him Twain's natural heir, these stories capture a moment when America was still inventing itself, and laughing nervously at what it might become. For readers who appreciate humor that thinks as well as it amuses.
