Butte record., 1855-12-22
BIDWELL BUTTE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA SATURDAY, DECENBET

pie! Passing over the many wise,
thoughtful, gentle, and true souls, who
live by their humor embodied in books
or floating in tradition, great names
are not few. Cesar was the chronicler
Of Cicero's puns. Burke was noto-
rious punster. Homer's puns on
QUITS" appears to have heartily
amused the old blind bard. Even Dir.
Johnson, the most inyeterate of pun
haters, was more than once guilty, and
Of very petty crimes, too. Whenever
wisdom dismounts from her high stool,
with mind to have d good time, she
falls to making puns.
Spite Of ali that is said-and has
been said for 50 many years-puns
still hold their own.
Wit gives too keen a relish to life,
for us to part easily with any species.
We do not enjoy life any too MUCH
Isaac Walton'@ neielbor, who was too
busy to laugh lives next door to
many Americans. Make him laugh,
by hook or by crook, and you bless
him. Wen says Horace Smith: "The
grayest bird IS an owl, the grayest
beast Is an ass, and the grayest man
is blockhead."
What Godsend is laughter The
fountain of youth and happiness, the
comfort in trouble, the defence against
countelfeits Of all sorts, the great safe
guard and crown cf life! 70 say all
at once, in Lambs words, "a good
laugh clears tie air
But he who can, must not be con-
founded with him who will make nuns.
The potential IS a great deal better
than the infnitiye mood among pun
stcrs. What shall we say of the wag
proper, the willing, the joker Of small
jokes, the man who, feeling bound to
keep up = character by ill-lucb foisted
upon him, is always driving his yoked
ayIlables into notice! ''lt is good"
says that most entertaining Of writers,
Old Thomas Fuller, ''to make a Jest,
but not to make a trade Of testing"
The Earl Of Leicester knowing that
Queen Elizabeth was much delighted
to see a gentleman dance well, brought
the master of dancing school to dance
before her. "Pish," said the Queen,
it IS his profession; | will not see
him." She liked it, not where it was
a mastcr-quaity, but where it attend
ed on other pcrfections. The same
may be SAID Of jesting. The truth is,
the mere dancer does not dance like Il
gentleman nor the mere punster pun
ike wit.
Keeping this distinction in mind,we
can see whence the notion has arisen
that any one can make puns, and that
brainlcss men are the most likely to
make them. But we must not forget
that it is one thing to pun and quite
another to pun well. By a constant
perusaI Of Joe Miller and Of those
parts of the spelling book where words
Of a similar sound congregate, by con-
fning the attention to syIlables and to
the cold relations between ideas they
suggest, one may make puns and after
sufficient explanation conyulse the la
dies. Like success will follow like
devotion in other species Of wit and
humor.
Natural or acquired QuicknesS Of
wits must have something to do with
success in punning; else why are puns
50 frequently spoiled in the repetition
or so slowly taken? How few ladies
can at once take a good punl Even
the wives of auctoneers and of con
stant jokers, after years Of practice,
can do little more than laugh in the
right place at the old family iests.
In conclusion, as the least charita-
bic thing that can be said, wewill say
Of the punster what Thomas Carlyle
writes Of quite another class of per-
sons. ''IIow knowest thou, may the
distressed novel-wright exclaim, that
|, here where | sit, am the foolishest
Of existing mortals; that this my long
ear Of a fictitious biography shall not
find one and the other, into whose still
longer ears 1t may be the means, under
Providence, of instilling somewhat!-
We answer, none knows, none can GER
tainly know; therefore, write on wor-
thy brother, even as thou canst, as it
has been given thee" Pun on, wor-
thy brother, even as it has been given
thee.
A DISPUTE CHANGED.-TwO ladies