The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1853-02-24

papers to have been related by FARk bEH-
IAMIE, in his lecture on the Ridiculous, be-
fore the Brooklyn Institute:
An anecdote is tod Of a clergyman who,
while in the pulpit praying, CHANGING to o.
per his eyes, discovered two boys in the gal
lery, one with very red hair, fast asleep,
while the other, being awake, was holding
his hands to his companions 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 was obliged
to stop in his prayers.
II was Rochefoucault who said, "there is
something in the misfortuncs Of our best
friends that pleases u.s." I have seen a wife,
who dearly loved her husband, scream with
laughter at his humping his head on the edge
Of the door. [Laughter.l have seen du-
ltiful children laugh themselves almost into
fits at their fathers missing his chair and sit
ting on the ioor-as | did Just now. Laugh
ter. ron taking his seat al the desk, MIR.
b. had the misfortune to "let down" upon
the floor, owing to the unsetting oithe stool'J
I have seen people at church unable to re-
strain their mirth at the sight ola bit OF court
plaster which had slipped from the forehead
down to the extreme end ofthe pastors nose.
, Laughter.
Funnier than any joke, more supremacy
ridiculous than any misfortune, was the inei-
dent relative to the gentleman OF COLOR
who left New York on a western tour, and,
4 finding himselfin Buffalo without anything
to employ his time, thought he would send a
. Geographic dispatch back home, inquiring
8 ofhis partner as to their business. He sent
r this messase: allow 10 tbings? To this
d interroga,ory his partner Immediately re-
piled: "Things 10 hns." [Laughtsr Rest
> ing on this, he was 10 no very good temper
a when he returned home and found his part-
j nsr had sold out all his Eosda, poekSted the
a money, shut up store, and ruA Oh with the
: wife!
We never see ourselves ~ others see us.
"Thrse ehImnSy.swssps," says Haslett,
"happsniAg to meet at Lincoln's Inn Fields,
laughed at each other till they came near
DYING" In cities the sense Of the ridiculous
d is worn off by constant atEition. Let q big
s fat man slip upon the ice, and you may be
. sure that those by-stonders who'lsugh at him
3 are strangers, because the citizen has be-
come accustomed to such sights.
. When the swine had "the freedom OF the
city" they used to be the occasion Of quite
as much fun as disgust. They were Away
If performing the most unexpected and the mos
obstinate ieats and exploits on Broadway
A portly female was sailing slowly alonl
Broadway, in all the conscious dignity o
city life-dressed out in her silks and sntins
,r her ribbanes and LAGOS, her white kid gloves
4 &C., and looking like a representative o
Constantinopls Judging from her SUBLIME
" Porte } when all ola sudden she found her
OF self sitting upon the back Of a fine large
n porker, who came hurrying round the corne
F., Ola street; and SO firmly was she seate'
there that she was treated to a gratuitou
" ride Of a whole block before being thrown
from her perilous position. Laughter =
HI. Whether injured or not by her fall, cou:
:, she be pitiod by the bystandersl No; tn
IL sense of the ridiculous ovorruled all feeling
AZ OF pity or compassion.
b. CrGsus 10 said to have laughed to death a
ar seeing a donkey eat thistlss.
Pitiable sights, also, not unfrequently sug
b gest the ridiculous. Thus il is the depth Q
IT. sadness to behold a fellow-being drunk an
L rolling in the gutter. But how ridiculou
70 when, on goisg up to him and usking hi
how be got there, he replies: ~ made a
appointment to meet a man hsrs!" [Laugf
~, ter.
WI A friend OF misc passing a house wher
nd there was a funeral, stepped up to an Irish
IL man and asked him if he could inform hi,
who was dead. The Irishman replied: +"
cannot exactly say, sir, but l presume it
as the gentleman In the %cofin!"
ho Thus how absurd appear, through the me
=, dunn ofths ridiculous, all tho numberless Ii,
u tleness oflifs. DISSEMINATION itself is iidicu
no lous. 1t wears gold rings, and %satins, an
no brocades, and laces, and diamond breastpin
in (Which are suspected TO be paste;) it has
box at the Opera, to which il goes ever
night (though bored by the music); it carrie
Or a rare boquet, rather big, which il present
,e. to a lady In the next box. II has a lorgnet,,
m which it levels on tho already discovero
stars, or searches the house for other lum
narisS. 1t always goes to church Sunday
rain or shine, and reads prayer aloud, an
throws a half eagle into the plate with a lou
ring. But, while ostentation thus lives wral
"u in the mantle ofits selfshness, il is alway
absurd. People laugh at it.
Tor Much Of the ridiculous may be seen in VI
,r. rious other departments Of life. Look at som
Of the critics OF our day. Look at some
y the criticisms in the reviews, where tho wr
lrS ter desires to display his own talents rath'
he than give an idea Of the work upon which h
Re- is writing-making the author a mere hoe
ho from which TO suspend his own corruscl
- tons. That criticism is very absurd
u" which the critic judges his author by his ow
he standard Of thought or style.
Ip- The lecturer also spoke of a man vii
he whom he was acquainted, who thought |
was a poet because his rhymes were publisl
" ed In the weekly papers occasionally. An
On no also thought himself a very JashionaJ
man, because no went to the opera, dresst
In the height OF fashion, and visited Sarati
Ga once a year, Nevertheless, this ver
1t man was tho laughing stock Of all who kne
he him. The lecturer had also heard of youn
% lady who regarded herselfa as one ofthe ready
n. to. be-died-f for. kind-one who considered he
n self as the pink Of perfection, and the lead,
h. of fashion, who was in reality 30 extremsl
x. unattractive as 10 he liked BY her oWn sex. T
IT, all such mistaken mortals he would recon
to mend the lines Of Burns:
no 20 wad some power the giAis gle tham
To see themselves - ithers see thom;
ho 'TwAd frae many = blunder frco them,
"e And foolish notion"
Ir. JACK WHALEY's BREEcHEs. SACK Whu
ha | ar IN 80 L.. A I'll 4