The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-05-07
Are We a Humorous People ?

-. -.
Cox, who is both a producer and a
Judge of the staples in question, is
discoursing in Harper's Magazine as to !
the richness and abundance of the |
very qualities which our realistic critic |
refuses to recognize. Which of the |
p9ndits Is right? Have we wit or /
humOr, either, neither, or both, in this |
country? Are we a fun-loving people? |
What Is wit What Is humor? On |
the whole we must think the journalist |
to be IN the wrong but we shall not, |
on that account, remind him that he is |
wretched BritOn; that he had the /
misfortune to come into his existence |
outside the circle of inspirations which |
rally round the starry banner that, in |
one word, he is so FAR removed from the |
blessing of being free-born American, !
that he cannot tell a joke from a hole |
an the ground, nor see She iests over
which he stumbles every day.
The truth is that every nationality
has it's tuln for mirth, even the serious
Indian giving Oat tokens Of taste for
grim humOr peculiar to himself, and,
as wit and hUmOr spring from cOndi-
lions, that which may provoke the
mlrth OF one people may fall Int and
unlaughable upon the ear of another
people. Especially is this likely to
prove the case if there be a difference
of language the Jokes of the German
find little echo in France; the com
reality of the Leyant would hardly pass
current in Texas. Pope's couplet APP
plies to the estimation of wit main
tanned in different countries
" lis with orr Judgments our watches,
meme
60 just alike yet each believes his own"
The Londoner, who finds the stupid
est things in Punch " at least read
able, would go to sleep over Mr.. Lin
coins best "ya1ns." The Partisan
laughs until he cries at the drolIeries
shot off nightly in the cafes of the
Champs Elysees and considers Mr..
Joshua Billings an ass. What would
the sober suited BedOnin think of Mr..
Mark Anthony Twain's lamentation
over the dead body Of Adam, or the
Grand Llama of the Fat Contributor?
We know that Mr.. Artemus Ward
tickled the beef eating LondOuers but
how? In the first place he delivered q
funny lecture about the MOrnOns when
mOrmOnism wac an interesting question
III England; and, IN the delivery of this,
ne gave his audiences a genuine sur
prise by the union which he affected
between n rude and native Yankee
hGmOr and a most gentleman-like
Anglcized dTawl, accent and manner.
He carried this dexterOus trick into the
half-doEen papers which he contributed
TO Punch, and with equal success.
There was thus a tie, a bond of affinity,
between him and those who heard and
read him, the man himself being in
reality half a BritOn. Mark a contrast
furnished COntemp0raneOusly by tie
absence of these qualities of comic ALI
ance IN the person of Mr.. Arthur
Sketchly, a London humorist, who,
taking his cue from the success of Arte.
mus in the British metropolis. came to
try his merriment on New York, and
failed most signally, because his jokes
had nothing cosmopolitan about them,
and, worst of all, because they had
nothing about them common to the
New Workers..
Mr.. Toole cqUivOCal experience NAV
he ascrlbed to the same cause. He is
an admirable aUtist-LondOn's very
best. An ollspriug of the Dickens school
OF art, IN which grutesqUe and exagger-
ated farce Is Joined TO exquisite pathos,
Mr.. HoOle may be fairly said to be the
most versatile, rs he is the most viva
ctoGs, comedian alive. Just q look
at THAT Eooie, - very truly observed the
Eoung Lady of Gloster, makes one
feel like splitting" and so it is not
only IN GlOster but in Liverpool,
Manchester and Dublin, and all over
the provinces, as well as in London.
Quite another thing in America.
Hero Mr.. Ioo'e's grotcsquerie passes
Tor OVERRIDING, whilst many OF his
neatest points fail for lack both of IN
formation and sympathy in his audience.
Mr.. Sothern's Dundreary goes down
with US. because our own sham social
organism, even more than English
EctEgn and caricature, has made us
familiar with the brainless dandy of
fashionable life, aud thus an exceeding
broad extravaganza, being understood,
- aPplauded. Mr.. Toole, however, in
Broadway has scarcely as good a show
as Col. Sellers would have in the
strand, fer, whilst Sellers Olltrc char
acterstIcs might carry him along in
spite OF his unmeaning references and
ms outlsudish iargon, Mr.. Toole has
stun to rely upon his art, pure and
simple.
thus we see how absurd it is TO
measure the wit or humor of one
people by the standards which prevail
with another people. The New York
Times Is certainly at fault in this mat
ter. The humor of Rabelais is univer-
sal because 1t springs ont of the we'll
OF human nature, whereby it is also
coarse aud vulgar and yet Rabelais is
going ont of vogue. The humOr of
Dickens Is kept alive by his plot and
9athos, 10 which indeed, more than to
his humOr, he is indebted for his vogue
outside his native country. Even the
humor of CeTyantes, world-ernbraciug
is obsolete whilst Butler is rarely read
ut all. Indeed, neither wit FOR 6umor
can stand alone for a long time. If
they be not an rmanation of their
country and their time, they will only
i've IN q dc@ultOrT way, handed down in
fragments from age to age, and tam
perez. WITH rs freciv as though they were
It-CuuS OF loose women. PURGE the
worlds book of fun of its profanity
aud IT'S smut, and how much would be
lett of Il The most successful Jokes
are generally the rudest, and for the
reason not merely that they are forbid
den, which, indeed, is but poor reason
fer their popularity, but that they
contribute the most whimsical incon-
EruIties and the EXTREMIST contrasts to
surprise our rlS!hleS and compel Us to
I"Jgh. Nor Is their iudeoeucy so OBJ
Jectlouahe as it Is often represented to
bC; for that cannot be said t. be wholly
bad which draws men together by the
touch Of nature that makes the whole
world KIN, causing them to be merry,
to Ice gen rOUs one with another. to
digest, IN short, as the old saying has
n, TO laugh and grow fat " There Is
such thing SIS alternating decency
INTO a LEVIED hint; and we are not to
think 1t orr duty to make too much ado
about dung heap. The most refined
people are often the least moral, Just
rs the seyerest virtue is come up with
among the plainest folk.
As for our American humor, rough
RS 10 Is, 1t Is not nearly SO smutty as
the English, nor so witty immoral as the
French, at the same time that it is racy
of the soil, quaint and characteristic.
Uncuitured It most surely is; and very
primitive and provincial; more in3e-
y,ar1ar1f h0v-avGr Of classic iTgpiTati0O