[Original Manuscript] How to Kill an Eel by [EROTICA] - 1930

N.d., 1930. Original manuscript filling recto and most of the verso of single leaf; approx. 350 words. Old soil along previous folds, one fold slightly obscuring text, else Very Good. Racy joke written in what could be a juvenile hand, possibly to be passed around in school. Recounts the tale of little Johnnie and his quest to find out how people "court." Ma suggests that he hide behind the curtain when "Sal's beau" comes to court and the next day Johnnie recounts what he sees, culminating in his sister and her beau trying to "kill an eel": "She wiggled herself as if she wanted to tear the eel to pieces and then she left go [sic] of her beau and fell back on the sofa...[her beau] took the eel out and it was dead, its head hung down, and it was very limpy. Sal's beau looked sorrowful at the eel, but Sal said nothing, only sighed." There is no punch line, only that at the end of the story Johnnie discovers that his mother has fainted and so he goes off to find Sal.