Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-12-19
Hum0r a. q Weapon.

AOA - "OSRv1'
1t was said once OF the French Gov
eminent that II was i" . despotism tenn.
pered with epigrams." The French, in
despair OF better government, lightened
the burden Of political abuse BY their
satires, wit and natural gayety. The
American Government is Republic
Frightened with humor. Republics
are the most serious minded Of all Gov
ernments because all people bear the
burden Of State, choose their rulers,
and do for themselves all that monarch
zeal governments do for them. The old
Greek and Roman republics we're very
serious and sober, SO was the English
Commonwealth. and SO is the French
Republic of to day. But there is an ir-
repressible love Of fun in the American
breed, O reckless humor that will force
its way through the most dangerous
and exciting crisis. Take up an EGG
lish paper and you will find every
political question treated with solemn
gravity as though to see the humorous
side Of it were dark offense. But that
is not our way. The epochs of great
excitement, when the political passions
are kindled to their fiercest, is the time
when the wit and humor are most po-
tent.
A good joke rides on the sea OF strife
like petrol on the ocean storm. The
Jokes Of "old Abe " Lit up the darkest
hours Of the war. In the times of the
electoral troubles there was blaze Of
wit, and many a good laugh made po-
litical opponents brothers again for
moment. Wit is the American safety
valve. We work at high pressure, and
this is the way that we blow of super
fous steam. But let it not be thought
that our wit at such times is ievity or
frivolity; on the contrary. the shafts of
humor are keener than those OF logic or
invective. A strike of wit cuts like Q
sweep Of q saber. With us it plays
around everything, often cruel. but al
ways gay. Politics, eligion, philoso-
ply, social morality, and manners
nothing escapes it.-Balnimore Every
Sunday.
A TRIM APPEARANCE.-No woman
can give satisfactory excuse for per-
sonal untidiness. Household work, of
whatever kind, does not interfere with
having clean dress on, however COM
mon, Q nice, plain collar, and q smooth
head of hair. There is all the difference
in the world in different housewives in
this respect. Some always look bright
and smart" but others never look
decently clean in the mornings; they
seem to have no idea that anybody
notices their personal appearance while
engaged in their household duties, or
that it is matter of the least possible
concern to anybody. They forget that
they have q husband. who was won
when they were in full dress, and
studied to attract him by the addition
it gave to their persons. without regard
to the time and trouble it required
whose eye is as sharp now as it ever was.
and whose sensibilities are just as acute.
The children, too-especially the girls.
what o sad example to them is SLOW
enliness on the part of their mother!
The Nihilists are literally making
things hot in Russia. The latest dem
onstration was made upon the grand
old Norman town OF Kew or Kiev,
which they fred in seven different
places during q wind.storm. The only
details of the confagration are that the
fire ragged till the morning of the Sec
ond day, that the loss is enormous, and
that many lives were lost. Kew is
celebrated as the point at which Chris
tianity was first brought in contact with
the wild Muscovites. Vladimir welded
a daughter Of the emperor at CONSTANT
nople, who converted her husband and
built the cathedral of st. Sophia, which
is still standing, unless it has gone
down in the confagration.
A goodwife OF England was almost
startled out of her wits the other day
to see {" prodigious rat jump out Of
q large ham which had been suspended
for several months from q rafter of the
farmhouse kitchen, and was finally
taken down for family use. The Pro
risioner of London mentions the cir
cumstance, and pathetically morali2es
on the quadruped's probable grief at
being thus compelled to quit such .
comfortable nest at o moments notice.
/" How he must have sighed and groaned
as he waded again through the filthy
lanes of his ancestral home! Left
in the continued enjoyment of the re-
fining influences of the more civilized
surroundings, he might perchauoe
have become the worthy ancestor of
some future Darwinian.
1t may be eminently all right down
nearer the sea coast, but, out west hero
when young man volunteers to enter
tain an evening party by singing q
gondolied which he learned when
abroad and then sings something that
all the rest of the party learned twenty
years before at the primary school,
they don't kill him, but they say things
about him that nobody will ever tell
him, and that he doesn't really want to
hear.
At . legal investigation of a liquor
seizure the judge asked an unwilling
witness: "What was in the barrel that
you had?" The reply was "Well.
your honor, it was marked whisky
on one end OF the barrel and Pat
Duffy on the other end, SO that I Can't
say whether it was whisky or Pot Duffy
was in the barrel, being as am on my
OATH"