The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1866-01-31
From the Canton Magazine for January
American InMlnOR-.

= American humor has a flavor
peculiar TO 1sclf. II smells Of the soil. i
is an indigenous home growth. Like tn,
native wines Of a country, it has an aroms
Of its own, and il not made up to initial,
the Champagnes and Bnrgundies of differ
ent climate. And if its qualities have no.
yet been fully developed, there is hope that
with careful cultivation, it may be brought
to future excellence. It is perhaps natural
that this particular literary product should
be the first to show the capacities Of the
country. Here is some reason for the anal
ogy often drawn between the youth of a
people and the youth Of an individual; and
young man often shows An admirable
humor before he has developed correspond
ing faculties in other directions. To take
one striking cxample-Mr. Dickens dis
played oil the peculiar characteristics Of
his humor, if, indeed, he did not give the
most perfect example Of it, in "PIcKwioK,"
almost his first publication, and written ut =
very early age. No man can have the stock
Of thought which is necessary for philoso-
phical or scientific excellence, nor even the
stock Of experience and observation of life
which is necessary for a really great novel
list, until lie has grown out Of his first youth.
He can scarcely, in spite of some remark
able examples to the contrary, have en-
riched his imagination sufficiently to be q
great poet. But it is certainly possible for
him to show his sense Of humor. TO account
for this, it would be necessary, If it were
desirable, TO explain what we mean by
humor-a task which we may at once de-
cline as hopelessly impracticable one.
The profound psychologists and critics who
- 49, a -. ~. luc.
signally broken down. We know, indeed,
that, unless our national boast is ill-founded
"a suppostion not to be entertained for a
moment), humsr is something for which
Englishmen are pre-eminently distin-
guished, and in which Frenchmen are SO
deficient that they have even to borrow our
name for it. Rabclais and MOliere and
Voltaire and one or two other writer's have
certainly some faculty which, to the naked
eye, strongly resembles it /; but when we
look at them through good pair Of Eng
lish glasses, we see that it isn't the genuine
article. As for Germans, it need not be
said that they are about rs sensitive to
humor as so many apple dumplings. The
surgical operation which, as sanguine en-
thusiasts have supposed, might get joke
into the head of Scotchman, would be
thrown away upon German. Sauerkraut,
or Bavarian beer, or homegrown tobacco,
seem to act as effectual prophylactics. Try
ing joke upon genuine German is like
tickling q rhinoceros with straw, or rather
like digging Mr.. WardelPs fat boy in the
ribs; you may possibly send ripple over
his surface, but you don't penetrate the
outside layer. They are, it is true, an
amusablc people, NJ is sufficiently demon
AZ taI hrv V,ot. AL Al.
dreariest Of comic periodicals., K7addera-
datsch--a performance which is TO Chayipari,
what Bavarian beer is to Champagne A
not often show that tenderness Of feeling
which, combined with wit (if we make q
dogmatic assertion about two unknown
A German has tenderness enough and to
play Of intellect which produces wit. Our
best English hnmorists have presented the
happy combination whore the feelings are
that the sparks struck out by wit fall in
stantly upon our sentiment. Or, perhaps, q
Frenchman passes too quickly over the
associated ideas to get the full meaning out
Of them; and 4 German dwclls upon them
wv AOAk 0hu WV WhWtcNCE tuC
philosophy Of wit and humor may be, they
depend to some extent upon detecting re-
scmblances and contrasts which lie upon
the surface and will not bear laborious
examination. Everybody feels that Sidney
Smith made an exquisitely humorous re-
mark, when he said that it was so hot that
he could take off his flesh and sit in his
bones; and that Charles Lamb was more
profoundly humorous in tho " Dissertation
upon Roast Pig" To take, for example, .
sentence: "See him (thc sucking pig) in
the dish, his second cradle, how meek he
licth! Would'st thou have this innocent
grow up to the grossness and indocility
which too often accompany maturer swine
hood?" The touch about the second cradle
is inimitable: but if prosaic monster
should insist upon analysing the express
sions-upon determining the degree Of
resemblance between pigs dish and his
cradle, or upon determining the exact
meaning to be attributed to Sidney Smiths
metaphor Of sitting in your bones, the
whole beauty Of the comparisons would
evaporate. You might ss well try to ana
lyze the flavor Of roast-pig by dissecting him
with carving knife.
The power Of catching superficial rescnl.
blances by mysterious intellectual instinct
is as likely las we have before remarked
to exist in young man ~ in an old one