American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-11-23
National HumOr.

THE most peculiarly American form of
humor yet developed is that which has
lately become so popular among editorial
Observation-Disclosures in our Western States.
1t is understandable, and we can indicate
what it is only by giving one or two eX-
amples:
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 fu-
neral
"A Chicago man ate ten dozen eggs on
n wager last week. The money he won
has been paid to his widow"
"A man out in Kansas said he could
drink a quart of Cincinnati whisky, and
he did it. The silver mountings on his
coffin cost S13.75.''
| We cannot fail to discover at once the
parentage of anything of this sort. 1t is
too evidently Indigenous to be mistaken
| for an exotic.
The jests of other nations are equally
well marked. Your French bora-mot has
an unmistakable shrug of the shoulders
aboIt it. German wit is elaborate and
infinitely accurate in its details. A Scotch
Joke must of necessity be gimlet-pointed
else it could never be driven home in the
| head of Scotchman.
| We can not only discover the nationality
of a jest from internal evidences, but we
can often tell the exact region whence it
! came. and sometimes even its very author
ship is apparent. When we hear a
man say that he g wrestles- his
hash at such place, we know
very well that that man was ''raised''
west of the Alleghanies. The man who
asks you ''what you've got on your
wheel-house'' when he wants to know
what you propose to do. has no need tC
tell anybody that he has lived on the
banks of the Mississippi River. And il
could only have been a college student
and a sophomore at that, who, when
asked what stars never set, replied
'.rOostars.''
There are some iests. as we have al
ready remarked. whose authorship is
apparent: notably some of Hoods and
nearly all of Charles Lambs. Sake has
closely initiated his master in the matter
of prns. but he has never shown himself
equal to such play on words as that
which Hood puts into the mouth of the
vender of ear-trumpets, who, in vauntine
his wares, says:
s'There was Mrs. F.,
| So very deaf
That she might have worn percussion cap,
And been knocked on the head without hearing
| it snap.
Well, sold her horn, and the very next day,
She heard from her husband at Botany Bay
Charles Lamb was never like anybody
else, and certainly nobody else was evel
like Charles Lamb. 1t was he. of course
(who else could it have been?), who re-
piled to the complaint of his superior il
the India House, that he came to his desk
later i'll the morning than any other o.
the writers, by saying, . Yes; but you
see make it up by going aaoay earlier il
the evening"" His good things were al
ways SO essentially and wholly his own
that there is no possibility of mistakins
their origin. No other man could have
thought his thoughts or anything like
them. Nobody else would ever have
thought of plying our forefathers, who
lived before the times of candleiight, be
cause when they cracked joke after dark
they had to feel about for smile, ant
handle their ncigh5ors' cheeks to be sure
that they understood it.-Hearth & Home