the language. The least disagreeable form of dramatic action.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To

add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
PASSPORT, n. A document treacherously inflicted upon a citizen going

abroad, exposing him as an alien and pointing him out for special
reprobation and outrage.

PAST, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we
have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the

Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These
two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually

effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow
and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The

Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In the
one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential

prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing,
beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is

the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They
are one -- the knowledge and the dream.

PASTIME, n. A device for promoting dejection. Gentle exercise for
intellectual debility.

PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.
PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to

those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.
PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one

ambitious to illuminate his name.
In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the

last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened
but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

PEACE, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two
periods of fighting.

O, what's the loud uproar assailing
Mine ears without cease?

'Tis the voice of the hopeful, all-hailing
The horrors of peace.

Ah, Peace Universal; they woo it --
Would marry it, too.

If only they knew how to do it
'Twere easy to do.

They're working by night and by day
On their problem, like moles.

Have mercy, O Heaven, I pray,
On their meddlesome souls!

Ro Amil
PEDESTRIAN, n. The variable (an audible) part of the roadway for an

automobile.
PEDIGREE, n. The known part of the route from an arboreal ancestor

with a swim bladder to an urban descendant with a cigarette.
PENITENT, adj. Undergoing or awaiting punishment.

PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished" target="_blank" title="a.卓越的，著名的">distinguished from the
actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic.

The editor of an English magazine having received a letter
pointing out the erroneous nature of his views and style, and signed

"Perfection," promptly wrote at the foot of the letter: "I don't
agree with you," and mailed it to Matthew Arnold.

PERIPATETIC, adj. Walking about. Relating to the philosophy of
Aristotle, who, while expounding it, moved from place to place in

order to avoid his pupil's objections. A needlessprecaution -- they
knew no more of the matter than he.

PERORATION, n. The explosion of an oratorical rocket. It dazzles,
but to an observer having the wrong kind of nose its most conspicuous

peculiarity is the smell of the several kinds of powder used in
preparing it.

PERSEVERANCE, n. A lowly virtuewhereby mediocrity achieves an
inglorious success.

"Persevere, persevere!" cry the homilists all,
Themselves, day and night, persevering to bawl.

"Remember the fable of tortoise and hare --
The one at the goal while the other is -- where?"

Why, back there in Dreamland, renewing his lease
Of life, all his muscles preserving the peace,

The goal and the rival forgotten alike,
And the long fatigue of the needless hike.

His spirit a-squat in the grass and the dew
Of the dogless Land beyond the Stew,

He sleeps, like a saint in a holy place,
A winner of all that is good in a race.

Sukker Uffro
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the

observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his
scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile.

PHILANTHROPIST, n. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has
trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.

PHILISTINE, n. One whose mind is the creature of its environment,
following the fashion in thought, feeling and sentiment. He is

sometimes learned, frequently prosperous, commonly clean and always
solemn.

PHILOSOPHY, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
PHOENIX, n. The classical prototype of the modern "small hot bird."

PHONOGRAPH, n. An irritating toy that restores life to dead noises.
PHOTOGRAPH, n. A picture painted by the sun without instruction in

art. It is a little better than the work of an Apache, but not quite
so good as that of a Cheyenne.

PHRENOLOGY, n. The science of picking the pocket through the scalp.
It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe

with.
PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs

when well.
PHYSIOGNOMY, n. The art of determining the character of another by

the resemblances and differences between his face and our own, which
is the standard of excellence.

"There is no art," says Shakespeare, foolish man,
"To read the mind's construction in the face."

The physiognomists his portrait scan,
And say: "How little wisdom here we trace!

He knew his face disclosed his mind and heart,
So, in his own defence, denied our art."

Lavatar Shunk
PIANO, n. A parlorutensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. It

is operated by pressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the
audience.

PICKANINNY, n. The young of the _Procyanthropos_, or _Americanus
dominans_. It is small, black and charged with political fatalities.

PICTURE, n. A representation in two dimensions of something wearisome
in three.

"Behold great Daubert's picture here on view --
Taken from Life." If that description's true,

Grant, heavenly Powers, that I be taken, too.
Jali Hane

PIE, n. An advance agent of the reaper whose name is Indigestion.
Cold pie was highly esteemed by the remains.

Rev. Dr. Mucker
(in a funeralsermon over a British nobleman)

Cold pie is a detestable
American comestible.

That's why I'm done -- or undone --
So far from that dear London.

(from the headstone of a British nobleman in Kalamazoo)
PIETY, n. Reverence for the Supreme Being, based upon His supposed

resemblance to man.
The pig is taught by sermons and epistles

To think the God of Swine has snout and bristles.
Judibras

PIG, n. An animal (_Porcus omnivorus_) closely allied to the human
race by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, is

inferior in scope, for it sticks at pig.
PIGMY, n. One of a tribe of very small men found by ancient travelers

in many parts of the world, but by modern in Central Africa only. The
Pigmies are so called to distinguish them from the bulkier Caucasians

-- who are Hogmies.
PILGRIM, n. A traveler that is taken seriously. A Pilgrim Father was

one who, leaving Europe in 1620 because not permitted to sing psalms
through his nose, followed it to Massachusetts, where he could