another old joke

[George Thompson]

Those of you who have memorized Ulysses -- and I hope that's all of you -- will remember the following discourse from Lenehan the sponger:

Lenehan gave a loud cough.  -- Ahem! he said very softly.  O, for a fresh of breath air! [sic] I caught a cold in the park.  The gate was open.
        James Joyce, Ulysses.  The "Omnium Gatherum" subsection of the chaper "Aeolus" (ch. 7).  vol. II, p. 281 of the Hans Gabler edition

The following paragraph from 1837 alludes to the joke:

Two loafers slept in the Park last night, taking the precaution to keep the gates shut.
        Evening Chronicle, June 16, 1837, p. 2, col. 3

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.