Editor's Note: The first consideration, in selecting the illustrations for this book, as I have pointed out in the text, was that the drawing must be funny.

I have always thought that the Americans are the funniest people on earth: the writers, Josh Billings, Artemus Ward, Mark Twain, Eugene Field, Bill Nye, Finley Peter Dunne, Ring Lardner, H. L. Mencken, Will Rogers, and Fred Allen; the artists, Opper, Sullivant, "Zim," McCutcheon, Kemble, Powerts, Art young, "Tad," Steig, Arno, and George Price; and the cockeyed comedians, of vaudeville, screen, and radio.