New Orleans daily crescent., 1857-12-07
Pulls and PunniIig.

Z. Z
Do you mean to say the pun question is not clearly
settled in yonr minds? Let me lay down the Law
nppn the subject Life and language are alike sacred
Homicide and veybcide ~ that is, violent treatmeh
" word With fatal results to ts legitimate meaning
which are its lfe- ARE alike forbidden. Manslaugh
ter, which is the meaning of the one is the same q
mans laughter, which is the end Of the other. "A
pun is psia tacie an insult to the person you are
talking with j implies utter indifference to or sub
lime contempt for his remarks no matter how serious
speak of total depravity, and one says all that is
written On the subject is deep raying. have com
mitted my seerespect by talking with such person
OF speak Of geological convulsions, and he asks me
what was the cOsine Of Noahs ark also, whether
modern inundation. Shg ~. 3 q a,
pun does not commonly justify blow = return.
But, if . blow were given for such cause and death
ensued the jury would he judges both Of the facts
and Of the pun, and might il the latter were OF an
aggravated character, return verdict Of justiiabe
homicide. Thus, in q case lately decided before
Miller J. Doe presented Roe subscription paper,
and urged the claims of suffering humanity. Roe
replied BY asking, When charity was like togf y
lence. Roe then said, :" When it begins to hum
Doe then-and not till then-struck Roe, and his
head happening to strike bound volume Of the
Monthly Rag Bag and Stolen Miscellany, intense NOR
tacation ensued, with fatal result. The chief laid
down his notions of the law to his brother justices
who unanimously replied, /" Jest co." The chief
joined that no man should Jest 80 without being pun
ised for it, and charged for the prisoner, who was
acquitted and the pun ordered to be burned by the
sheriff. The bound volume was forfeited as . deo-
dand, but not claimed. p 81 1s.''a o.st5
z People who make puns are like wanton boys that
put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse
themselves and other children, but their little trick
may upseta freight train Of conversation for the sake
Of q battered witticism. ies Il I'd 58,t It'll
And, once more, listen to the historian The Pu-
ritans hated puns The bishops were notoriously ad
dicted to them The Lords Temporal carried them to
the verge Of license. Majesty itself must have its
Royal quibble, 'Ye be burly, my Lord of Burleigb
said Queen Elizabeth, but ye shall make less stir in
our realm than my Lord leicester The gravest wis.
dom and the highest breeding lent their sanction to
the practice. Lord Bacon playuly declared himself
q descendant of the King Of Bashan.' Sir Philip
who brought him water, for wasting casque full
upon q dying man."
q A courtier, who saw Othello performed at the
Globe theater, remarked that the backamore YVES a
brute, ,and not o man. Thou hast reason replied
great Lord, "according to Plato, his saying, for
this be twolegged animal ,Dih feathers" The fatal
habit became universal The language was cor
rupted The infestion spread to the national con-
science. Political d0uble.dealings naturally grew
out Of verbal doube-meanings. The teeth Of the new
dragon were sown by the Cadmus who introduced
the alphabet Of equivocaton. What was levity in
the time Of the Tudors grew to regicde and revolu-
tion in the age OF the Stuarts.
Who was that boarder who just whispered some-
thing about the Macaulay flowers of literature There
was dead silence / said calmly, shall henceforth
consider any interruption by pun as hint to change
my boarding house. Do not plead my example. If
I have used any such, ii has been only as Spartan
father would show up drunken helot. We have done
with them. a si5s