Feb. 4, 1944: “Dear Walter,” writes Maurice Rocco, “It must be an oldie but it still gets the biggest laugh wherever gamblers gather. About the wife who (going through her groom’s pockets) found a slip of paper on which was memo’d ‘Ruth.’ She asked him: ‘What’s this mean?’

” ‘Oh,’ he oh’d, ‘that’s a horse I played today.’ Then the phone rang. She picked up the receiver.

” ‘Darling,’ said the Mrs., ‘your horse wants to talk to you.’ ”

Raymond Page read it long ago: About the diplomat from Europe, who after witnessing Congress in action the first time, observed: “Congress is strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens and then all disagree.”

From the St. Petersburg Times.