The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-10-10
English Humor.
lNorristown Herald.l

lNorristown Herald.1 I I1f
Italic type play an important part in
the construction of English humor. The
Italic tcasesEin the printing office of a
London comic weekly bear the same
proportion to the. Roman. as the Roman
do to the Italic in an American newspa-
per Office about twelve to one. The
parenthesis is another prominent fea-
ture in developing the. British pun; and
the compositor has his box of "parens /"
in his lower case, for greater eonven-
ience.y In nine cases outIof ten, the Joke
that is too feeble to stand without being
supported iby Italics, orr has to be exl
planned in parenthesis, is worthy only a
place in the waste basket. The average
Englishman, however, may not possess
that same keen instinct in detecting a
pun that is inherent in the American
reader; hence, it is imperative that
Italics be employed as finger boards, and
if the point is stilla little obscure, he
wants il parenthetically explained. He
reads something in his comic weekly in
the morning, and several hours later it
suddenly occurs to him that it was a
joke, and he goes off in cachinnatory
explosion. An American would either
see the joke in an instant or-never.
p We append a few specimens of the
English method of building puns, CLEANED
from recent numbers of a London
comic weekly. Here is sample with
the parenthesis attachment: =,
What little flower is produced by
the union of two agricultural ,imple-
ments? A rose bud (harrow spud W
This, to use a John Bullism, is awfully
awful. And here is another, little
worse, which we find infthe same num-
Der: ~ tAi
!" If you took your ulster to a French
laundress to be, cleaned, what Canadian
province would she probably mention /?
Nova Scotia mo wash coats here ~ ssa
Talk of Bulgarian atrocities after
that IF a man was to submit such a
diabelical thing to an, American editor,
he would be paid for his temerity by
being quartered into at least six pieces,
and the coroner's jury. upon learning
all the facts Of the case, would acquit
the editor on the ground of fseff efense,
Here is another popular style of Iem-
| ploying the parenthesis: 9f HEft' ~
ssWhen does q baby farmer prove more
than a mother to her baby chargel
When she is its (s) motherer.n tss
We now come to the Italic feature,
and here is a fair sample: IS
|. ga public meeting was held on Mon
| day to settle the question Of tare on
hops. AS the season is just commenc.
ing it was thought to be opportunity
to decide this a0eighty matter. For our.
selves, we always believe in an allow.
ance for fair wear and Tear"
The Italics here are about as much
use as the third leg on chicken. And
the same may be said of the following
/" At Hinckley, on Tuesday, three
lads we're found guilty of breaking open
six missionary boxes belonging to tha
| church, and were sentenced to be i'm
prisoned and birched. One of these
sacrilegious young wretehes was named
Arthur Wheat, which cognemen il
strangely suggestive Of Hrdshing. We
hope they boxed the ears of Wheat, fol
that would be sure to go against the
grair.nn 80 = - - - s~m ~
The thoughtfuiness that suggested
italicising the cereal part of the boys
name takes firm hold of our admira.
tion. "a
Humorous sketch writing, as exhib
tied in the London comic papers, Is moi
of an u uproarious characters The majoi
proportion ofsits has decidedly mild
favor. I'VE give q sample; pnrperting
to be the diary of sportsman: -
Monday I2-Glorious day for the
grouse -or rather for the, shooters
rather a'bad day for the grohseI I should
say Suh5strikes through my window
(Which is sort-of glass trap-door lin
the roof right into my face. 4rwake
/ with a start, and stretch my arms above
my head my knuckles come In violent
contact with the ceiling start up with
pain, and my head suffers in a like man.
ner. Confound it! / grow more weary
Sliding sideways out of bed aligbt on
] the floor, and carefully assume p sitting
posture. Ny head does net touch The
ceiling. Icrawl until / reach the lofti
est part of my chamber, and slowly rise
to a perpendicular. I fit. In this con
dition Iattempt to perform my morning
toilet. Contusions on the head anG
abrasions Of the elbows, however, soo1
induce me, to relinquish the attitud.
and 60 about with my back bent il
seeming decrepitude which would dis
credit even my age"
I And so on, in the same hilarious ant
mirth-provoking strain, to the extentso
column or more. Despite the poo
quality of the samples quoted, however
some of the, English, journals do FIRE
| quently print some very clever humor
i But it is stolen from American papers