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This collection assembles more than three hundred brief anecdotes, jokes, and epigrams that depend on wordplay, situational irony, and everyday foibles. Each item appears as a short titled vignette, ranging from single-line quips to slightly longer comic sketches touching on family life, clergy, lawyers, regional manners, and social customs. The tone moves between gentle satire and absurdity, using concise setups and swift retorts to highlight human vanity, misunderstanding, and hypocrisy. Entries are grouped for easy dipping and light amusement, offering quick observations and humorous reversals rather than extended narrative development.
An odd instance of the force of technical training is afforded by a story of one of the official attendants at a funeral. Having been charged with a message from a relative of the departed to another guest, he came across the room, and translating it into his own language, said, "If you please, sir, the corpse's brother would be happy to take wine with you."