Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-10-16

hended under the general name of pun
ming. The seeds of punning ara In the
minds GRAIL men, and though they NAV be
snDdued reason, reflection, and good sense,
they VIII be very apt to shoot up in the
greatest genius that is not broken and cul-
| tivated by the rules of art Il has been
said, however, that no ssman ever condemn
ed good pun who was able to make one
himself" and full two-thirds of recorded
wit consists Of puns.
Sidney Smith and Charles Lamb have
denied the existence of Scotch wit, and the
possibility of making q Scotchman see a
joke. This is an unjust prejudice, and
Dean Ramsay's amusing "Reminiscences of
Scottish Life and Character" contains
more than enough to refute completely such
proposition, although
THE SCOTCH CANNOT COMPETE WITH THE
IRISH
In this domain. The quickness Of reply
and richness of wit exhibited by Irishmen
is unequalled by any other nation. A ma
tive of Ireland can always get out of diff
ficulty by the sharpness of his wits. When
the officer told private to 60 and let his
captain know he was the idlest rascal in
the regiment, he answered, "Please
your honor, you would not have me go
with lie in my mouth?" There is
often, too, a beautiful pathos in these Irish
tales that is closely allied to their
humor. A poor old woman being sympa-
thized with on the loss of her teeth, replied,
'Time for me to lose 'em when I've moth
ing for 'em to do" An Irishman never
bluuders from stupidity, but because his
head has more than 1t can carry. His name
is invariably associated in our minds with
BULLS.
A bull has been explained as a false ex-
preston of truth, and Sydney Smith
calls it counterpart of a witticism; for
wit discovers real relations that are
not apparent, while bail admits apparent
relations that are not real. The sum
and substance OF Maria Edgeworth's
essay On 'Irish Bulls" appears TO be that
it is impossible to divine what they are.
They are distinct from the blunders
Of other countries, but in what that
distinction consists has yet to be discov-
cred. Coleridge says the particular spe-
cies bull is often confused with the genus
blunder, and he defines bull as ga mental
juxLapositiOn of incongruous ideas with the
sensation, but without the sense Of con-
nection." A simpler explanation would be
that bull is laughable blunder.
1t was Sir Richard Steele that said to
certain great man whom he wished to in
vite, '1f, sir, you ever come within mile
Of my house, hope you will stop there"
II being remarked that noblemsn's wife
had no children, medical man hazarded
the opinion that he had noticed such to be
hereditary in some families. A country
man who was indicted for stealing a goose
brought nelghbor to swear that he re-
memOered that very goose in his pos
session ever since it was a gosling.
An Irisbman who was a prisoner
for stealing gun, on hearing
this defence, prevailed on fellOw-country-
man of bis TO swear that he remembered
the gun in his possession ever since it was
pistol. The following description of
very thin man Is not bad: "He's grown so
thin, hardly knew him. You are thin,
and am thin, but he is thinner than both
Of us put together" Sir Boyle Roche was
living walking bull, and his speech was
one continued blunder.
An apparent blunder may at times be 80
imaginative as to rise into poetry, for in
stance, Sir Thomas Brownies sentence, ain
a word, conceive light invisible, and that is
SPIRIT" which has certain likeness to
the passage in Job, "a land of darkness, as
darkness itself, and of the shadow Of
death, without any order, and where the
light is as darkness" There are
blunders that are nearly allied to bulls,
which we find rather difficult to classify,
such IS "Every man his own washer
woman" Shakespeare talks of getting the
better of things impossible, and Corneille
of conquering the uncorquerable; which ex-
pressions are only blunders to prosaic
minds.
Blunders of speech are frequently made
by those who have an insufficient knowl-
edge of foreign language. An English
man often laughs at the
MISTAKES OF A FOREIGNER,
But the foreigner is more considerate to the
Easlishman, as when ons of our country
men expressed his fear that the expression
he had used was not French, he was
answered, Anon, Monsieur; mails
merite bien de retre." Lord West
moreland, wishing 70 say, II would If
could, but can't" render il, ''Je voudrais
81 ie coudrais, mais je ne cannais pas"
When Alderman Wood visited Paris after
Waterloo, he got some visiting cards and
largely distributed them, with this inscrip-
ton, aAlderman Wood, feu Lord Marie de