The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-05-05
THE PRESS.
International Jokes.
The Scotch, the Irish and the English At
titude Toward Mirthful Sayings.
London Globe.

There is delightful irony in the attitude
which the Scotch and English adopt toward
each other on the subject of jokes. English
men have 1t as tradition, received from the
dim medieval past, that the iuxtaposition of a
Joke and a .ot is in itself sufficiently ludi-
crous to provoke laughter. III the present day
they do not probably believe that the tradition
is well-founded; but of its existence there is
no doubt. Only few days ago Sir William
Harcourt reminded the House of Commons
that Sydney Smith had said that a joke was
serious matter in Scotland, and the remark
was greeted with roars of laughter 1t is by
no means new, yet it is always received with
laughter not because it is true, but to some
extent because it is not true. The tradition
dates from almost barbarous times; and when
we consider the relations which existed be-
tween the two peoples a few hundred years
ago, we are not surprised that the early En-
gish did not find many traces of humor in
their Scottish neighbors. Some chiefs in the
neighborhood of the border managed to main
tain their independence and to wage free
booting war of reprisals on each other on toler-
ably equal terms. But often not,
there WIS an English army across the border;
the result being that the Lowlan Is of Scot
land, instead of being as they now are, the
most fertile and peaceful part of the United
Kingdom, were desert in which the sad lord
Of inisrule had it all his own way. 1t is not
altogether astonishing that the Scots had no
stomach for cracking jokes with the men who
We're continually burning their crops, besieging
their castles, carrying off their kings, and
compelling their mobiles to sign such documents
as Ragman's Roll.
The Irish, it is true, poor and disaffected as
they are, enjoy a wonderful bnoyaney of
spirits. They can bind themselves By all oath
not TO enter tue hearso of the undertaken
whom they have "Boycotted; they can
daL &c on the blood of a murdered landlord,
and with a grave face ask for substantial re-
ducton from the estimate of the late Sir Rich
ard Griffith. But such cheerful views of life
are peculiar to the Celtic race. The troubles
of the Scots produced in them an intensity
and devotion to their struggle for independ-
ence which, TO their English invaders, APP
peared to be anything but jocular When
James /. succeeded to the English throne, he
was followed to London by host of needy and
ambitious Scots. Englishmen of the time re-
garded the Influx as no pleasantly. 1t was
serious matter, but not a joke. "Your Scottish
laird" says writer of that time, "may be de-
fined as the hungriest and vainest Of bipeds
yet known" But he generally succeeded in
working himself into some position of inf1u-
ence and emolument. He was not popular
among his English cousins, for he spoke with
broad accent, and viewed life from point
of view which they did not understand; while
he had an unpleasant knack of getting what
he wanted. Hence the extraordinary, almost
ludicrous. hatred of the Scotch which Swift
- L.
shown. Swifts short criticism on Clarendon's
"History of the Rebellion" "The cursed
hellish villainy treachery. treasonS of the
Scots were the chief grounds and causes of
the execrable rebellion"-is fair example of
the terms in which he was wont to express his
opinion. In styling the Earl of Stamford a
rogue, he illustrated his meaning by adding,
"half as bad as Scot" while, for attempting
metrical translation of the Psalms, he glib
beted DIR. Gibbs as ''fddling, impudent,
nauseous, illiterate, scoundrel Scot" He nav
not have thought SO meanly of their wits, as
in his memoir of Captain CREIGHTON he tells
with approval the story of q minister who was
surprised in bed, and about to be put to death
by his enemies, when he cried out that he had
always prayed to God that he might die in bis
bed, adding that he had in his house as good
ale and brandy as was in all Scotland
johnson likened the impudence of an
Irishman to that of fly which buzzes about
1.-THE impudence of Scotchman," he added
"is the impotence of leach that fixes and
sucks upon your blood" This was not the ex-
preston of an individual opinion, but the
view taken by all Englishmen, who abhorred
Jacobites and witchcraft. Hence joke at the
expense of a Scot was always enjoyed, and
many were made. 1t has now become a time
bonored custom to say that Scotsmen cannot
help coming from Scotland; and to talk know
ingly of taking the "breeks' off a Highlander
And Sir William Harcourt only showed his
respect for English tradition when being CUES
toned as to Mr.. S:opford Blair's 'inconsider-
ate" joke, he quoted Sydney Smith But the
point of the jokes is very different in these
days. They have lost their original sting, and
the reason why they excite SO much laughter is
somewhat curious.
No Englishman believes that Scotchmen are
less addicted to joking than their neighbors.
humorous than the English and scarcely less
witty They can understand and appreciate
any joke but one which is made at their own
expense, Being intensity proud and selfcon-
scious, they can see nothing ludicrous in their
own actions; and it is precisely their resent
ment of personal witticism which make people
laugh at Sydney Smiths sayings The amuse-
ment consists not in the idea that Scotchman
does not understand joke, but in his indig-
nation at such an idea. 1t must be admitted
that there was no national competition for the
joke or the Wigtown deputy lieutenant.
Swift, in speaking of the Duke of Hamilton,
mentions that he was murdered by "that vii
lain Mccartney, an Irish-Scot." The author
Oh tne poiSoneu mutton JOKE is OStenslpiy
of the complex nationality which Swift dis
liked. Still, from what took place in the
House of Commons, there seems to be as much
difference of opinion as to his true domicle as
there was about the birthplace of Homer. But
while the cities of Greece contended for some
share in the honors of their immortal poet the
three races of the United Kingdom endeavor
to divest themselves of the responsibility for
Mr.. Stopford Blair's joke. Like the civilian
Mccartney" he is an Irish-Scot but his crime
is, fortunately, not very serious. So long as
this country exists, the traditional fiction that
jokes are uncongenial to Scotchmen will prob
ably remain, and Englishmen will laugh, not
because they believe the charge to be true,
but because they know it to be false and are
amused by the reputation of their Northern