Collection of "humorous" stories. Making little light of the stereotypes but pounding them into the racist rants which white men seemed to find to necessary to "elevate" them above others. Examples of invidiousness abound. A nasty review of "Uncle Tom'[s Cabin Company" is tittered up. [240]. "Negro" is the only topic under the letter "N", and contains the largest number of numbered contributions -- all of them providing examples of blacks in jail, in trouble, getting hung and displaying cowardice or laziness. Under the topic "Hangings", six items, all "darkies".

Under "Hebrew", all stories about money-hoarders.
The yarns are presented in "realistic" settings which often quickly go wild with color and exaggeration. Lots of attention to the dialect, the accents of the Southerner, the Negro, the Irish, the brogue inflection and Yiddish cant.

Of tremendous cultural "historical" interest. Almost none of the "humor" is possible to appreciate today since it rides almost entirely on affected smug pieties and fictions. The author correctly suggests that story-telling can be uses to "point morals, to express situations, to help us solve puzzles". If only.