Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-11-17
THE GROwTH OF JOKES.

An article in a late number of the
British Quarterly ReUielU gives an in.
sight into the history of many witticismS
that have become famous, as well as di-
vulges the process Of manufacture
3 rough which many excellent jokes
ave had to go before their authors
, JuId pass them offas spontaneous.
"Wit," il says, sis not always so
-ontaneous as it appears. Impromptus
( are often polished by the midnight oil
thus S~heridan's celebrated description,
I in the sHOuse of Commons, of Dundas as
one who generally resorts to his memo
ry for his Jokes, and to his imagination
for his facts went through many
changes before it came out in its present
hrilliancy. The following are some Of
the earlier forms of the witticism: He
employs his fancy in his narrative, and
keeps his r~ecOllections for his wit
When he makes his jokes you applaud
the accuracy of his memory, and It's
only when he states his facts that YOU
admire the flights OF his Imagination
"Nit is an evergreen, and jokes Of
great antiquity are constantly appearing
as new. We can trace the sentiment
contained in the well-known lines,
For he who fights and runs away
May live 10 fight another day,
to Demosthenes, who when ne fled from
the rabble and was ~reprOached for il,
said 'thathe that flies might fightagain.'
HThe germ of Douglass Jerrold's Joke,
that it was better TO be witty and wise
than witty and otherwise is to be found
in a little book of 'C0nceits,' published
in 1859. In the same work is the ever
green joke of the man Gun, who, having
been charged by a Judge for tale bearing
was desired to give a good report in fu-
ture.
Lord Lyndhurst used TO say Of Lord
Campbell when he wrote his Lives of
the Chancellors,i that he added q new
pain to death. The original Of this wit
ticism can be traced to DR.. Arbuthnot,
who styled the infamous CURL one Of the
new terrors of death. Cicero classes
POmpey among those who are Sua man
tes SIC TtUali, and we often hear the same
turn of expression used to describe some
vain man. Mr.. Raikes, in his diary,
cites a bon mot applied to a great cox
comb, who was said to be Ie plus heu-
reduE de- hOmmes; u est fort dmOursuI
Re lui.neme ct MA point de TiU0Ur.'
Rogers relates that when Person was
told that DR.. Prettyman had been left a
large estate by Mr.. Tomline, who had
only seen him once, he said, 1T would
not have happened if he had seen him
twice. Person apparently borrowed his
idea from the old epigram:
"I owe said Meuus, much to Colon's care
Once only seen he chose me for his heir
True Metius, hence your fortunes take their
rise;
His heir you were not had he seen you twice.
"Peter Pindar gave new point to an
old Jest when he said that if he had not
been a good subject to the King, his Maj
esty had been . good subject to him.
Scaliger tells ola proud nan who, hav-
ing %duarrelled with the Queen of Ma
varre, was ordered to quit her kingdom
Immediately, and replied, THAT / can
do so in a very short time This has Civ
rise TO the following modern version:
A prince of Italy, whose dominion was
of small extent, ordered a man out Of it
in t~wenty-four hours. The prince has
been liberal, for / can quit it in half an
hour answered the banished man.
"Wit is sometimes involuntary, and
amusing anecdotes often gain their point
from the ndiDete of those to whom they
Sir Walter Scott tells how he
was at a country sale, and bought an
old piece for five and twenty guineas.
This price much astonished an old wife,
who was looking to buy something else,
and she cried out, If the parritch pot
gangs at that, what will the kali pot
gang forT'V An American minister
was once preaching about heaven, and,
to show the absurdity of S~wedenborg's
ideas, drew a graphic picture Of the
Swedenborgian heaven, with its beau
tiful fields, fine horses, cows, and pretty
women, when, in the midst ofhis glow
ing description, one of the sisters went
into raptures, and shouted, GLORY, glory, /
This so discounted the preacher
that he paused, when an elder cried to
the shouter, Hold on there, sister; you
are shouting 0ver the wrong heavenw
ut is thought by some to be an adj
vantage for the teller OF good stories to
keep asolemn countenance himself; but
Charles Lamb classes among his P6pu-
lor BdAaeies this: that "aman must not
at his own Jest He says:
ave love to see q wag waste his Own
to his party, to watch a quirk, or q
merry coneeit tiiekering upon the lips
seconds before the tongue Is de
livered of it. iii be good, fresh and
racy, beg0tten of the occasion; If he that
uttgFs 1t never thought Of it, and any
suppression Of such completeness We hold
10 be clownish and insulting Z"