Carolyn Wells 
Outline of Humor Being a True Chronicle From Prehistoric Ages to the Twentieth Century 

Excerpt: "Being a True Chronicle From Prehistoric Ages to the Twentieth Century". Speaking exactly, an Outline of the World’s Humor is an impossibility. For surely the adjectives most applicable to humor are elusive, evasive, evanescent, ephemeral, intangible, imponderable, and other terms expressing unavailability. To outline such a thing is like trying to trap a sunbeam or bound an ocean. Yet an Outline of the History of the World’s recorded humor as evolved by the Human Race, seems within the possibilities. First of all, it must be understood that the term humor is here used in its broadest, most comprehensive sense. Including both wit and humor; including the comic, fun, mirth, laughter, gayety, repartee, -all types and classes of jests and jokes."