Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1853-02-09
Whe Ridiculous

as = sfs::4ss Ilhe RidicuI Ions. s. & s.e3f
The following amusing Incidents are reported in
Fthe New York papers to have been related by
Park Benjamin, in his lecture on the Ridiculous
before the Brooklyn Institute, on Friday evening"
can anecdote is told Of "a clergyman, who, while
in the pulpit praying, CHANGING to open his eyes,
discovered two boys in the gallery, one with very
red hair fast asleep, while the other being awake,
was holding his hands to his companion's head, as
if warming his hands, Such an exhibition of the
ridiculous could not but force itself upon the mind
of the minister, and he obliged to stop in his
prayer. 1t was Rouchefoucault who said "There
is something in the misfortunes of our best friends
that pleases u.s. ! have seen wife who dearly
loved her husband scream with laughter at his
humping his head against the edge of the door
l have seen dutifuI children laugh themselves al
most into fits at their fathers missing his chair
and sitting the floor-as did just now. Laugh
ter. On taking his seat, Mr.. B. had the misfor-
tune to ,,et himself down D ON the floor owing
to the upsetting of the stool. / have seen peo-
pie at church unable to restrain their mirth at the
sight of a bit of court-plaster, which had slipped
from the forehead down to the extreme end of the
pastors nose.
| Funnier than any joke, more supremely ridicu-
lous than misfortune, was the incident relative to
the &C gentleman Of COLOR who left New York
on Western tour, and finding himself in Buffalo
without anything to employ his time, thought he
would send a telegraphic despatch back home, in
curing of his partner as to their, business. He
sent this message: g How is things % To this
interrogatory his partner Immediately replied
" All is fine" Resting on this, he was in no very
good temper when he returned home and found
his partner had sold out all his goods, pocketed
the money, shut up store, and run off with his
wife 'a
We never see ourselves as others see US
g Three chimney sweeps says Hazhtt, "happen-
ing to meet at I4incoln's Inn Fields, laughed at
each other till they came near dying" In cities
the sense of the ridiculous is worn off by constant
attrition Let big fat man slip upon the ice, and
you may be sure that those bystanders who laugh
at him are strangers, because the citizen has be-
come accustomed to such sights. When the swine
had ssthe freedom of the city, they used to be
the occasion of quite much fun as disgust
They were always performing the most unexpect-
ed and obstinate feats and exploits on Broadway.
A portly female was sailing slowly along Broad I
way in all the conscious dignity of city lie, dress
ed out with her silks and satins, her ribbons and
laces her white kid gloves, &c, and looking like !
representative of Constantinople, Gudgng from
her Sublime Porte) when all Of sudden she found
herself sitting on the back of fine large porker,
who came hurrying round the corner Of a street;
and so firmly was she seated there that she was
treated to gratutous ride of awhole block be- Z
fore being thrown from her perilous po4ion,-
Whether injured or not, by her fall, could she be
pitied by the bystanders No; the sense of the
ridiculous qyerru]ed every feeling of pity or com
passion.
Crnsus is said to have laughed to death to see a
donkey eat thistles. A friend Of mine passing
house where there was funeral, stepped up to
an Irishman, and asked him if he could inform
him who was dead. The man replied: ss cannot
exactly say, sir, but presume it is the man in the
coffin p
Thus how absurd appear, through the medium of
the ridiculous, all the numberless Gttlenesses of
Life. Ostentation itself is ridiculous. 1t wears
and diamond breastpins, which are suspected to be
paste; it has box at the opera, to which it goes
every night, though bored by the music; it carries
rare boquet, rather big, which it presents to
the lady in the next box. It has lorgnette, which
it levels ON the already discovered stars OF scar
ches the house for other luminaries 1t is always
sure to 60 to church Sundays, rain or shine, and
reads prayer aloud, and throws a half-eagle into
the plate witha loud ring. But. while ostentation
thus lives, wrapt in the mantle of ftssown selfish
ness, it is always absurd. People will laugh at
it. sd
Much of the ridiculous may bo seenin various
other departments of life. Look at some of the
critics of the day. Look at some of the criticisms
in the reviews, where the writer desires to dis
play his talents rather than give an idea of the
work upon which he is writing-makes the author
mere hook from which to suspend his own cor
ruscations. That criticism is very absurd in which
the critic Judges his author by his standard of
thought or style"
The lecturer also spoke of a man with whom
he was acquainted, who thought himself a poet,
because his rhymes were published in the weekly
papers occasionally. And he thought himself
very fashionable man. because he went to the op-
era, dressed in the height of fashion, and visited
Saratoga once year. Nevertheless this very
man was the laughing stoch of all who knew him.
The lecturer has also heard of lady who regard
ed herself as one of the ready-to-die-or kind; who
was so extremely unattractive as to be iked>by
her oaen ser. To all such mistaken mortals, he
would recommend the lines of Burns:
81 go wad some power the gifte gle them r. zz