An edited and annotated collection of humorous writings by American journalists from the golden age of newspapers (roughly, the second half of the nineteenth century), in which they made fun of themselves and their profession. The collection humorously describes the nature and practice of publishing newspapers in the 19th century, and resonates deeply with today's ironic and self-referential humor, by implicitly making journalism itself the target of its satire. The collection is introduced by an essay by John Buescher on the development of newspaper journalism during the 19th century and on the changeable nature of what readers have thought was funny. The writers include Mark Twain, George Horatio Derby, Lewis Gaylord Clark, William Trotter Porter, Eugene Field, Charles Heber Clark, Edgar Wilson Nye, George William Bagby, Stanley Huntley, Robert Henry Newell, David Ross Locke, William Albert Wilkins, James Buckham, Jane Grey Swisshelm, Harriet Prewett, Sara Payson Willis, Charles Graham Halpine, Ashbel Fairchild Hill, William Wright, Francis Blake Crofton, Robert Henry Newell, Melville Delancey Landon, John Kendrick Bangs, William Livingston Alden, Ambrose Bierce, Edward Everett, James Montgomery Bailey, William Stevens Robinson, Finley Peter Dunne, John Henton Carter, Charles Farrar Browne, Charles Bertrand Lewis, Francis Bret Harte, Jonathan Falconbridge Kelley, Benjamin Drew, Richard Kendall Munkittrick, Henry Wheeler Shaw, Opie Read, George Ade, and others.