The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1872-1881, 1872-12-13
Fun FOR THE Jonrn.
ressinx the Jokes Of alt Nations sy Tbc,r
Ear-Narba


takably as wn, n,snd humor do. The
speeches of Burke Wight have been de-
livered by Webster, the poetry of Word
sworth and Southy might have been writ.
ten by Americans; there is nosttsg about
the German philosophy whichis so es.
sentially German that it nigh not lave
been English, and there are some d .Le
French dramatists who could almost MSs.
initiated Shakespeare himself But itSB
not so with wit and humor. Give Jest,
and it needs but little discernment to tell
whence it came. Sheridan's much-quo-
ted remark concerning Dundas, that he
"resorts to his memory for his wit and to
his imagination for his facts" could not
possibly have been made by any but an
Englishman, or even by an Englishman
of any other than Sheridar's time.
Douglas Jerrold's witticism, ut is bet
ter to be witty and wise than witty and
otherwise" was not only very English,
but very Jerroldy, and few people would
need to be told who said il.
And so it is with the humor Of other
peoples. Who would hesitate for a mo-
ment to credit Ireland with the man who,
vaunting the glorics of the past, wanted
to know "where you will find modern
buiidiug which has listed so long as the
ancient ones?" Equally evident is Sir
Richard Steele's nativity from his cele-
brated effort to extend hospitality to a
friend, to whom he said, ''If you should
ever come within mile of my house, J.
hope you will stop there -
Perhaps the most strongly marked hui
NOR, however, is b4 of our own coun-
try. 1t is of ofsoad-guago sort-a kind
of high-prc.ts. 2 yl5"adir-too much like us
to belong % any body else. Thackery's
Joke about the size of uir oysters was
purely English, of course, and differed
in every way from that of bis American
who remarked that he had
seen an oyster solarge that it "toJt three
men to swallow it whole" Equaay y
American was the remark of the North
Carolinian, who. in speaking of the ex-
treme leanness of his neighbors hogs,
said che had to put overcoats on them
to enable them to make Il shadow in the
SUM-" 1t must have been this North
brother who said an acquAnt-
ance was $50 tall that he never found out
when his feet got cold till they got warm
agaia."
Nobody but an American could have
called Shakespeare "boss poet" as Ar
temus Ward did.
But the most peculiarly American
form of humor yet developed is that which
has lately become so popular among edi-
torial paragraph-writers in our Western
States. 1t is indescribable, and We can
indicate what it is only by giving one or
Two examples.
"Mrs. Gwin, of Davenport, assisted
the kitchen fire, one day last week, with
the kerosene can. The heavy rain kept
a good many people from attending the
funeral"
"a Chicago man ate ten dozen of eggs
on wager last week The money he
won has been paid to his widow"
"a man out in Kansas said he coull
drink a quart of Cincinnati whiskey, and
he did it. The silvermounting on his
coffin cost sl3 25."
We cannot fail to discover at once the
parentage of anything of this sort. It's
too evidently indigenous to be mistaken
for an exotic.
The jests of other nations are equally
as well marked. Your French bon mot
has an unmistakable shrugof the should
ers about it. German wit is elaborate
and minutely accurate in all its details.
A Scotch joke must of necessity be gim-
let pointed, else ii could never be driven
home in the head ofa Scotchman.
We cannot only discover the nationali-
iy of a Jest from Internal evidenc p, but
we can often tell the exact region whence
it came, and sometimes even its very au-
is apparent. When We hear a
man say that he ''wrestles bis hash" at
such place, We know verywell that man
was ''raised" west of the Alleghanies.
The man who asks yon "what you've got
ON your wheelhouse" when he wants TO
know what you propose to do, has no need
to tell anybody that he has lived on The
banks of the Mississippi river. Aud II
could only have been a college student,
apl a sophomore at that, who, when ask
ed what stars never set, replied, "roos-
tars."
There are some jcsts, as We have al
ready remarked, whose very authorship
is apparent; notable some Of Hoods and
nearly all Of Charles Lambs. Sake has
closely initiated his master in the matt y
OF puns, but he has never shown himself
equal to such a play ON words rs that
which Hood puts into the mouth of the
vender Of ear.trumpets, who, in yaundng
his wares, says;
"There wa Mrs. r.,
80 very deaf
That she might have worn a percussion-cap,
And been knock,d ON the head without hear
ing il snap,
Well, / sold her horn, and the very next day
She heard from her husband at Botany
Bay.