New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1855-12-18
AMERICAN HUMoR.

individual is endowed with pee liar stv,e
and quality Of intelsct-with some logic, Wit or other
mental qualification not possessed BY any other-so it
seems that nations share in this general allotment and
are notable by virtue Of intellectual characteristics
strong Ii not stronger than these which are personal
The spaniard enjoys heritage of wit that deals in
proverbs, saws and musty sayings the Irishman has
capacity for repartee bulls and double entendre the
Engshman is notable for kind of bunder peculiar to
himself the American for style of exaggerated anth
ess that has prototype in what is either ancient
modern.
Illustrations of the acete of these different kinds will
readily accommodate themselves to the memories Of ALL
The storybooks full of them The Joe Millers and
Crockett amanacs Of the age illustrated by them
Turn which way-soever the reader may he is grounded
by some evidence and proof of the truhulness of
assertion We each of recall thousand exempli
catiops of the rules thousand proofs Of the truthful
ness of the stateeneyery legitimate and natural
In the whole catalogue however 1t will be difficult to find
ANYTHING richly and originally humorous-so pecu-
iary fupnyso strangely mirthfuas what comes under
the head American humor 1t touches the borders of
all the other kinds frpges their domains but occupies
territory of It's own unquesoned and not to be
dicted The lsughter-provokng principle that lives in
everything humorous and amusing, here works itself
in novel style-by hyperbole and complication of i'm
possibilities before attempted dreamed Of The
nearest approximation to be found is in the plays of
Sophoces where sort of Davy Crockett conversations
between Zeus and the other immortas is carried on till
even the gods tired and the goddesses compelled
to Stake their smiles in sleep.
Probably philosophers of psychology could explain
how it happens that one finds food for mrth in
subject Immediately exhumed from the grave cause
for laughter in topic touching him home to the very
heart Most of able less clearly to
the causes of cachiuaton when another bped falls
an orange peel and falling leaves behind him memora-
BILE memorial in the shape Of rent reaching half way
from bis heels to his head, posor But neither the
one NOR other sufficient ratiocination to explain
the manifold mysteries that make mirth consequent
upon the falling together Of simple words whose only
tie is in their sameneFs and equality Of sound.
no undertake this hitherto unaccompshed task would
be to dare warnings Of Horace try Icaran wings
Our object only raise the subject before the minds
of othem-and then its solution to better iudg-
ments to start before the world of writers theme
worthy Of their STEEL and behold the from afar
Can any genius of metaphysics unfold to the
and philosophy of that humor wit, merrmentby what
passesthas passes American wit? Can
any one tell what is the aughabe sutject-matter in
mans being tall that he has to climb ladder to shave
himself crooked that he must have three barrels in
in order to Sleep 1t is said to be the contradiction
Of deas-but stranger and stronger contradiction may
be found in what every day. without provoking
the risibles of the most rnrthful We all laugh-but
how few of us can tell why. 1t is because merry
what produces the merrment and why should the merr
ment cause laughter Most of all, what is the merr
ment- matter that makes American humor notable,
so peculiar and prominent Leigh Hunts philosophy
does not sufficiently discourse to this end.