Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1873-01-29
TiiS Eas.M OF Wit.

There l. n0ihiu2 e.sc in the world
" whiciI bears the m .rks of its nativity
80 unn.iatakabiy as wit and hnnor do.
Tie speeches of Burke miyht have
been delivered by Webster: tie
poetry of Wordsworth, and Suuthcy
lnig:.; lave been written hy Ameri-
cans; there is no;:.irg about the Ger
man philosophy which is so essen
tally German tl!at il might not
have been English; aud there are
some of tie French dramtis;s who
could almost haze initiated even
Shakespeare himself. Bat it is not
so with wit aud humor. Given q
jc~t .ant it lie. ds but little discernmcmt
10 tell whence it came. Shcridan'>
mucl,-quotcd remark concerning
Dundas. that he resorts TO his memi-
orv for his wit and to his Imagination
for his facIe." could not possibly have
been made by any but an Engl.sh:nan
or even by an Engiisi'man OF ANY
other ti.an Shcristan's time.
Douglas Jcrrol,i's wiitici-m, III
is better to be witty au,i wise than
witty and otherwise" was nat only
very English, but very Jerroldy. and
few people would need 10 Uc told
who said il.
And so it is with the hnmor @.
other peoples. Who would hesitate
for moment to credit Ireland with
the man who. vaunting the glories OF
the past, wanted TO know .'whrrc
you will find a modern buii.Iin. wllicl,
has lasted as long as the ancient
ones:" Equally evident is Sir Rich
ard Stccle'S nativity, from his cele-
brated effort 10 extend hospitality to
Il friend, to whom he said, IF you
should ever come within mile of
my house. hope You will stop
there And there can be 10 ques-
ton that it was al Irish editor who
announced that prominent gentle
man of the country hai "dicd sud-
dcniy after lingering Illness
Perhaps the most s'ronglr-marked
i:umor. however. is that of nnr own
country. 1t is of broad cange sort
=. kind of hi-h-preSSure ad,tir-toc
n,.:c:! Ike ms - belong TO anybody
r.s". T:acEarly,- joEe ahou. til"
=. .'f o't. ".'>tnrs was purely En-
.i.s!,, oI course, and differed in every
way from that q: his American com
D9uiOn, who refnarka.i that he had
seen an oyster 50 large thar it .'took
three Men TO swallow il whole.
Equally American was the remark o!
the North Ca oil an, who, III speak
ing of the cALrcIne leannnss OF his
nciglbor's hogs, said that 'he had
to put ovcrcoats on them to enable
them 10 make q shadow in tie sun
II must have been this North Carroll
MANS brother who said an acGaaiH-
tamcc was 80 tail that lie never
found GU: when his feet were cold
till they got warm agaiu.'
Nobody but an American could
have called Shakespeare "a boss
poet" as Artemus Ward did.
But tiic most peculiarly American
form of !uinor yet developed ia that
which has lately become SO popular
among editorial paragraph-writers in
our Western States. 1t is indesrrib-
able. aud we can indicate what it is
only by giving one or two examples :
Mrs. Gwim. OF Davenport, assist
ell the kitchen fire, ,one day last week. J
vita the Kerosene can. The heavy f.,
rain kept n good many people fror'
attending the funeral"
"A Chicago man ate ten dozen |
eggs on a wager last week. The
money he won has been paid TO his
widow"
"A man out in Kansas said he
could drink quart of Cincinnati
whisky, and he did it. The silver
mounting OF his coffin cost Sl275."
We caHno. fail to discover at once
Tie parentage OF anything OF this
sort 1t is too evidently indigenous
tn be mistaken for an exotic.
The jests of our nation are equally
well marked. Your French 5oa-nof
has all unmistakable shrug of the
shoulders about il. Germau wit j.
elaborate and minutely accurate 'iu
all its details. A Scotch Joke must
of necessity be gimlct-Poiu,ed, else il
1t could never be driven home ia the
heads of sscotchmcn.
We cannot only discover the na-
tiora!i;y Of ajest from external evil
dence, but we can often tel the ex-
act region WHENCE it came, and some
times even Its very authorship is ap-I
parent. When we bear o man say lie