The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-03-31

AMERICAN WE.
The London ianu&day sRvssS,o has Ind
iniits possession some, of the miserable
American jest books which have, been re.
Gently produced, and Which ascribe All tie
"little stories |" to the Prssidehtgio Tits
leads the Reviep to a discussion of q Am.
erican Wit /" from, which We quote, . few.
paragraphs. It says: 800 go. 80. :,
Whatever else the Americans have not, they
do possess thoroughly peculiar national wit,
The word "hamor" Is not exactly applicable
but it has the dry fame of real wit. Ofcourse,
much of it is based on. exaggeration; but to
exaggerate truly-that il, to exaggerate not
wildly, as amere. liar does, but in the direct
line of the fact on the basis, a. 1t were, Of Whist
is-requires imagination. One of the best
Yankee exaggerations had the "honor," 50 to
speak, of figuring in one Of Mr.. Lincoln's State
papers, If indeed the joke was not the more re-
pectable of the two. The President spoke Of
the Mississippi gunboats of draught 80 light
that they "could float wherever the ground
was little damp" .-.....-.,.s q
re That the continual current of American
jokes has not been stopped during the war is
natural enough. The NOrtherners have never
loved the war for itself, and have never gone
of martial deeds. They accept it resolutely
enough g q means Of saving the Union, but
they do not glory in it as we have gloried in
the battles Of the Peuinsula or In the Crimean
war. Hence their readiness to make Jokes on
what one would naturally regard as too serious
q subject tor pleasantly. We never treated
nsgnty our Indian mutiny, nor did our fore
bat then we have not Yankee esprit, nor the
recklessness which Is its root. One advantage
which the Americans now have In national
joking Is the possession OF President who is
not only the First Magistrate, but the Chief
Joker Of the land. Many collections of Amer
lean !ests are advertised As containing Mr..
Lincolns latest jokes, and some of his stories
are certainly good.
Z. After quoting q sample story of the
President, the Reuiew descants upon its
familiarity with q subject generally re-
garded as not the subject Of a jest, and
observes: y-. 'z+z T.''i. 'a.
But this story-one of many such-indicates
what all readers must have observed, that the
basis Of nearly all American wit is irreverence.
To call Niagara "a w0ter privilege" to speak
lightly of the most serious events-to treat al.
ligators, lightning, big rivers, trackiess noun
tains as mere material fbr jest-is natural
enough, for in real life all these things have
been actually faced by the lanky ean.visaged
pioneers who have given out their dry daring
jokes with smileless lips amid swamp fever.
starvation, and death ITSELF Besides this, the
Americans of the North have startling readi.
ness to treat with jesting familiarity even the
most sacred themes. That their professed wits
should do 80 is, of course, not strange for re-
ligious subjects have again and again provoked
the irreverence of professional jokers. But
American oratory, literature, and conversation
are full of familiar and jocose illusions to mat
tiers that other men habitually treat with grav-
ity, and that the Americans themselves, sin.
cerely respect.
This habit of TESTING the ReuierO traces
to " Puritanisn, !" and thus shows the con-
nection: ." a4,..tl
Puritanism, in one shape or another, is the
dominant idea OF the North. To the founders
of New England the historical characters of
the Old Testament were not literary shadows,
but given to them as exemplars. God was to
them present Deity )" Especial Provi-
dence' was ever at their side; peculiar mer-
stamped their life, their literature, their acts
their words, with religion actual, vivid, solid,
full of fact They spoke of Jehovah and
Christ, of heaven and hell, of death and the
judgment, as they would of the serious famil-
lar facts of daily life-as they spoke of their
long Darn, or tnclr QItc6n-8cro nel0, or their
new clearing. The Devil was as real as the
Indian, and was spoken of much in the same
way, as q real living enemy, haunting New
England, to be met, and if possible, overcome.
Puritanism in its day, in our own country, was
much the same thing; in its literature We find
illusions which even Mr.. Spurgeon would
think coarse, and passages which perhaps the
Record would hesitate to print. d1 5i0t
The American irreverence that translates tho
Bible into newspaper jokes is therefore de-
seconded, on one side, from the fearless Puritan
handling of religious names, thoughts, and
facts but on the other side, 1t is derived from
the audacious, wildcat Yankee spirit evoked
by New World facts. Men who have had to
encounter the hardships and perils of lakewood
life must, above all things, have courage; and
the courage that habituallY faces danger, dis
comfort, rough life, gougiHg, bowie-knives
and free fights, soon becomes recklessness
Take your Puritan, with his constant dragging
in of religious words and ideas into daily life;
keep him for years far from "the means Of
grace" as prayer meetings are called; give
him, instead Of imaginary wrestlings with
Satan, some tough fights with grizzly bears
show him chances of cheating Red Indians, of
larrupping niggers, of striking traden with
q Yankee less keen than himself; and you
have, a. the result, an odd mongrel- one third
Fifth monarchy, one-third Red Indian, one.
third Joe Miller, with the g Bible twang !"
grave, lantern-jawed, and lean, like the abort
gines with the old English love of humor,
but humor dried, cut into slips, and preserved
En0liah ss;orlroH vuitS1 v,occt;.. a, -.