The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-04-01
HUMOROUS OBJECTS.

HUMOROUS OBJECTS.
Not only is the susceptibility to
humor different among different ma
tions, but the humorous objects differ
by reason of different customs and
habits. There is nothing very laugh
able to us in the manner in which we
at our hotels and railroad depots COB.
BILE down our food, but even an Arab
or a Chinese would laugh at the ope-
ration if we did not. Yet it is lu-
dicrous to us to see an Arab lady pick
out the choice tidbits with which you
had loaded your plate. or roll a little
ball Of hash in her dainty fingers, and
by way Of especially honoring you,
plug your mouth with it unexpected
]y; or to see Chinese with bis chop
sticks load himself up with boiled
rice, and ram it down as we would
wad in gun! It is said that the Ia
dies under the dominion Of the Grand
Lama, when good-looking, disfgure
their faces to preserve them from
vanity. I have never seen that re-
corded of our ladies-Heaven forbid!
The idea, however, is as ludicrous as
the Tartar custom of pulling a man
by the ear when they want him to
drink, and keep pulling till he opens
his mouth, when they pour down the
liquor. l know a man whose ears do
not require to be pulled !
There is nothing very laughable to
an American in the shaking of hands,
which is every where practiced in our
country: but foreigners do find in it
much amusement. Yet nothing will
be more ridiculous to US than the sa-
lutation in Germany, where one may
see two big, burly, hairy men rush
to each others embrace and kiss
with schoolgirl fervency. The peo-
pie of Thibet salute by lolling out
the tongue and scratching the right
ear, and the Esquimaux by rubbing
the noses with their thumb and de-
scribing comic section in the air
with their fngers-a custom practiced
by mischievous urchins in our land,
but not exactly as a salutatory grace.
1t is now happily honored in the
breach. In Turkey an American
travelling with his unveiled wife, even
without the appendages so usual here
of six small children and seven large
trunks and bandboxes, is to them in
funny predicament. On the other
hand, what would be funny with us,
among the Turks is quite the reverse.
An American gives us an instance in
his experience in Syria. He was
| about to mount his mule amidst a
crowd of Oriental visitors, and wished
to give an exaggerated idea of Ameri-
can agility. He jumped a little too
far, and overshot the mark, coming
down on the other side like diver,
with his hands and nose in the mud,
his feet caught in the saddle, and his
coat skirts cleverly rolled over his
head to screen him from what he sup
posed was a laughing crowd. Yet
not soul smiled, not a sound was
heard save atender grunt ofsympathy
and demure offers of aid. Now a
Turk in America, with baggy breech-
es and turbaned head, taking a leap
over mule in the streets Of all Amer
lean city, and getting stuck upside
down, with his proboscis in a rut and
his heels in the saddle, would be salut-
ed with something more than a grunt
of sympathy and demure offers Of aid
We have more humor than dignity
the Turks more dignity than humor
There never was an American who
would not sacrifice his courtesy and
sympathy to his fun. He must have
it, however, we'll seasoned, and done
in hurry, and its prevailing charac
teristic must be exaggeration. Yor
saw this illustrated even in the inor.
dinate hopes of so calm and sedate &
statesman as Mr.. Seward, as to the
closing up of our late civil war in six
|ty days. That was the huge joke o:
our time. There was court in Gen
eral Grants army which sentenced :
man to work ten years on Genera
Buffers Dutch Gap Canal and i
wa IS generally said, if not believed, il
the army that Palmer, who made tn
patented limbs, had purchased 200(
acres of Western land, and planted
them with locust and maple, with I
view to economic in the future in hi
manufacture of arms and legs.-Tht
H on. S. S. Cox, in Ha,per's Magazin
for April.