Truly, this 1920 guidebook to maintaining a cheerful, youthful outlook is full of helpful advice. Take this to heart:

"Rich people are, nine times out of ten, pleasanter, kindlier, better bred, and less selfish than poor folk-they can afford to be; and they are more enjoyable playmates and steadier friends."

But be careful:

"If you indulge your emotional nature too much, you run the risk of becoming either a musician or possibly a poet. These are all right but not for normal people."

A breathtaking artifact of an era not so bygone as it should be, this is a laugh-out-loud hilarious-if unintentionally so-defense of privilege, conformity, vapidity, and social discrimination.

Also available from Cosimo Classics: Thompson's Drink and Be Sober.

VANCE THOMPSON (1862-1925) is also the author of Eat and Grow Thin and The Ego Book.