The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1872-10-10

this account as to their age is true
On another occasion, on board ship In
a storm, seeing the rest of the passen,
gers lashing themselves to planks
hencoops, oars, and other objects, as q
security in case of wreck, Scholastic
Gus makes himself tast to an anchor
| Finally having occasion to make .
hurried journey, upon his coming to
| the ferry, lie enters the ferry boat on
horseback, booted and spurred, and
when asked why he does so, replies
! THAI he wants to get over the river
! more quickly. fe Ef
! In some ofthe anecdotes, two Scho-
lasticusses, are introduced, i'll order TO
play each other off, and thus Inutual-
! iy to heighten each others absardity.
Scholasticus one day is surprised to
| meet brother Scholasticus who had
lately been reported % be dead. SIS
| it possible 2" says Scholasticus. Why,
| heard that you were dead y Sc Well. =
replied his friend, "you see me still
alive and kicking" Scholasticus shook
his head. 6 That is all very well"
said he, "but l assure you that the
person who told me was much more
credible authority" - -
. DO dSdlH, OCuOidSt1CuS aklu nlS iEaCHu,
who, as it chanced, was bald, having
occasion to keep watch together,
agreed to divide the duty between
them, each in turn sleeping while the
other kept watch, to be by his part
ner awakened when the time of his
own watch arrived. During one of
Scholasticus' sleeping times, his friend
played him the trick Of shaving his
head. Scholasticus, OH awaking, put
up his hand, and feeling his head bald,
called out in alarm, that they had
awakened the wrong person. Eaoo :.
But for the most part the point of
the Joke is purely the simplicity and
awkwardness of the unhappy subject,
or his Ignorance uof the affairs Of-com-
mon life. Thus, when. he seesla friend
who was about purchasing a horse,
carefully Inspecting his teeth, with a
view OF course, to ascertain the ami
mails age, he expresses his surprise
that his friend should take SO much
trouble, whereas he might be satisfied 1
that the horses teeth was all right
as he had Just seen him eat his corn
with great ayidity. 8 On another occa-
sion, having a house to sell, he brings
with him one of the stones. Of the wall
as :. a sample of the house" On an
other, seeing his doctor coming up the
street, he hides behind a wall, "being
ashamed" as he says, to meet the
doctor-it is so long since l have been
iii" And when a thievish slave con-
tinued to- steab his wine by boring a
hole in the bottom of q jar which Scho-
lasticus had carefully sealed, and when
a friend in explanation suggested that
the wine had been abstracted |
from the bottom, g You fool ~ says 4
css don't you see thatit is |
not the bottoEi of the wine, but the [
top that is gonep I9H1oo 8d3 - 1agin !
Such are the jokes of our friend 7
Not ayery profound, it |
must be confessed, nor of a higheor-
der of humorous invention. But, new /
ertheless, it is impossible not to- rec
ognize in them the type, if not the ae-
tuali germ of much of what passes for t
humor in our self-satisfied age and,
In common with the analOgies be-
tween the tradition, the legend, and
The fiction of different races, and ages
widely distant in time from each 9TH I
,r, they serve to, illustrate that com +
or it may be- that emutuallin-
of thought, which |;
s bond of Econnectionfb between all
iteratures, the ftldest and the most
'efned, that which has hardly emerg- T.,
ID from the simplest elementary stage, Il
md that which has reached the high
'st degree of culture and elaboration.