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From: lew@ihuxr.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Re: Quaker joke
Message-ID: <721@ihuxr.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Oct-83 14:42:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxr.721
Posted: Fri Oct 21 14:42:02 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Oct-83 07:45:03 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 34

This was  in Readers' Digest:

A man visiting a Quaker farm happened to be nearby the farmer, but hidden
from him and overheard him trying to coax his mule into motion with,

"Hanna, I'll not curse thee nor revile thee, but I will twist thy tail!"

Discussion: This seems to me much more Quakerly than the one wherein
the Quaker was going to sell his cow to a Baptist who would "beat the crap
out of her." That one showed a willingness to have harm done to the cow,
as long as direct responsibility could be avoided. It also showed an
intemperance of expression. This is in contrast to the second one wherein
the farmer showed a calm but firm resolve, as well as an honest acceptance
of responsibility for his actions. The "joke" is that he was slipping in his
commitment to non-violence.

There's another joke similar to the "cow" one that I heard Garry Moore tell
on "To Tell The Truth". A Quaker lad was held down by his friends who poured
whiskey down his throat with a funnel. When they asked him later whether he
would now be willing to drink, having once done so, he replied, "No, but
thee may funnel me again." I think the joke itself is an expression of the
the same revenge that the youths had upon the lad in the joke. This impulse
seems to be shared generally by drinkers. They resent the temperance of those
who don't, revealing their feelings of inferiority by this resentment. (I drink
but I readily admit it to be a weakness. Anyone who manages to abstain is
better off for it, in my opinion.)

There is a TRUE account given by George Fox in his Journal. He went into
a tavern with his friends (this was in his youth) whereupon it was declared
by one of their number that whoever should quit drinking first would pay
for the whole night. George Fox immediately put down an appropriate sum of
money on the table and, declaring the error of their ways, left the tavern.

	Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew