The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-05-02
American Humor.


believe, is the most genuine in the
world Its chief Characteristic is, un-
| doubtedly, tremendous power in exag-
geration, accompanied by sort of in
nocent air of truth. As an instance of
this exaggeration nothing can be better
than the war-story, which tells how a
Snowman, from his constant travelling
about, had his name enrolled in thOus-
ands of places, and was actually draft
| ed in SO many hundred spots, that he
| formed himself into a brigade, held
! brigade meeting, and elected himself
| brigadier general by acclamation. Take,
| too, the story of the steamer on the
| Mississippi, that sailed from Baton
! Rouge for New Orleans, long way
| down the river, and went so slow that,
after two days steaming, she found her.
| self 10 miles higher up the stream thau
when she started This species of hu-
NOR is not confined to the West. 1t
was in New England that the fog was so
| thick that man engaged in shingling
! roof shingled hundred yards right out
| on the fog before he found his mistake.
} On the other hand, underlying the love
for general ideas, and for that exagger-
alton of speech that naturally follows
it, there is in Americans deep stratum
of shrewd common sense, that eontlnu-
ally breaks out as check on buncombe
in all its shapes, and has itself crea-
ted the ludicrous ideas conveyed by the
words buncombe, spread-eagle, and hi
falutin. America, it must be remember
ed, changes so fast, that general state
ments as to American literature and
thought, that might have been true
few years since, are not true now. MIR.
Lincoln was the most thoroughly Amer
lean man that America has shown to the
world. He was the only American
statesman that America has produced.
Even Webster was English by his side.
Everything about him-from his dress
to the attributes of his mind, from his
appearance to his jokes and stOries-was
essentially American, and of the latest
type. Mr.. Lincoln would have been
impossible 80 years ago. But Mr.. Bret
Harte's miners seem to belong to new
race, which knows not even Lincoln.
They are far-western, was a
central valley American. The men of
the Mississippi valley seem all alike.
Lincon and Parson Brownlow are two
representative heads. The hollow
cheek, sunken eye, large nose, high
forehead, square chin, jet hair, are
alike in all the men of southern Illinois,
Indiana and Ohio, and of Missouri,
Kentucky and Tennessee These men
have not square jaws for nothing. When
Parson Brownlow was asked if he was
coming out as a democrat, his answer
was, "When join democracy, the pope
of Rome will join the Methodist
church" That there was tinge of
melancholy in Lincoln's disposition is |
well known; that it is general among |
Americans is a less accepted theory, but |
not the less true. It runs through all |
their humor, and seems to extend to |
California, for there is pathos even in |
Mr.. Bret Harte's jests. Downrightness, |
melancholy, and odd expression, all |
color American humor, and distinguish |
it from that of other countries. As for |
the odd expression, it must be borne in |
mind that many so-called Americanmsis |
of the newest type are but old English |
isms come home to roOst again, and no |
longer recognized by us. platform
may be found in Harrington " Let him |
slide" has Shakspeare's seal upon it F; |
the New England drawl and twang it |
self may be heard in central Essex, |
whence it was that the Pilgrim fathers |
bore it across the seas to become in time !
the habit of more than half the English |
race, and a laughing-stock to its own
parents in Old England. There is still |
too much, however, of that yulgarity |
which changes mad-house" into an
insane receptacle" and calls swind-
ling by the taking name of :" financial |
irregularity." AS for American down
rightness, along with it there goes too |
much of one-sided ferceness into the
American character. No American, for
instance, out of New York and Boston,
ever seems to read the papers on both
sides. He says "he can't sit still to see
his friends abused" although he reads
with pleasure the personal attacks upon
opponents in his own gazette. just as
elsewhere there is too much, so in
America there is not enough of sympa-
thy with the physical weakness of any
cause that is also wanting in moral
strength. No American was able to
conceive that there were men in En-
gland, during the late rebellion, who
could sympathize with the confederates
merely because they were few, apart
from the question of whether they were
right. A western boy, talking to such
man, demolished him at one blow with,
" Guess, then, at the battle of Arma-
geddon, you'd take side with the devil"
which was, in reality, less q joke than
literal expression of American thought.
Attenouna.