Edited
BY THE AUTHOR OF "SAM SLICK," &C.
"We have seldom met with a work more rich in fun or more generally
delightful."--_Standard._
"Those who have relished the racy humour of the 'Clockmaker,' will find
a dish of equally ludicrous and amusing Transatlantic wit in the volumes
before us."--_Herald._
"A new book, by the author of 'Sam Slick' causes some stir among the
laughter-loving portion of the community; and its appearance at the
present festive season is appropriate. We hold that it would be quite
contrary to the fitness of things for any other hand than that of our
old acquaintance, the facetious Judge Haliburton, to present to us a
Christmas dish, and call it 'Traits of American Humour.' But even
without the recollection of 'Sam Slick' to evoke the spirit of fun
within us, we should have been forced to yield to the racy humour of
these American 'Traits.' Dip where you will into this lottery of fun,
you are sure to draw out a prize."--_Morning Post._
"The untravelled European who has not made the acquaintance of Sam
Slick, can have but little knowledge of the manners, customs, humours,
eccentricities and lingos of the countless varieties of inhabitants of
North America who we are accustomed to conglomerate under the general
name of Yankees. Assisted, however, by Sam Slick's graphic descriptions,
literal reports, and racy pen-and-ink sketches, gentlemen who sit at
home at ease, are able to realize with tolerable accuracy the more
remarkable species of this lively family, to comprehend their amusing
jargon, to take an interest in their peculiarities of person and speech,
and to enter into the spirit of their very characteristic humours. No
man has done more than the facetious Judge Haliburton through the mouth
of the inimitable 'Sam,' to make the old parent country recognise and
appreciate her queer transatlantic progeny; and in the volumes before us
he seeks to render the acquaintance more minute and complete. His
present collection of comic stories and laughable traits is a budget of
fun full of rich specimens of American humour."--_Globe._
"The reader will find this work deeply interesting. Yankeeism
pourtrayed, in its raciest aspect, constitutes the contents of these
superlatively entertaining volumes, for which we are indebted to our
facetious old friend, 'Sam Slick.' The work embraces the most varied
topics,--political parties, religious eccentricities, the flights of
literature, and the absurdities of pretenders to learning, all come in
for their share of satire; while in other papers we have specimens of
genuine American exaggerations, or graphic pictures of social and
domestic life as it is more especially in the ruder districts and in the
back settlements, or again sallies of broad humour, exhibiting those
characteristics which form in the country itself the subject of mutual
persiflage between the citizens of different States. The work will have
a wide circulation."--_John Bull._