Morning journal and courier., 1881-10-01

From the London Telegraph.]
 Gravity of demeanor' is, we apprehend l little if at all inconsistent with genius for 1 jocularity. Democritus, who next to Diog- enes, said, perhaps, more good things than any other philosopher of antiquity, is de- scribed as livery melancholy by nature, ayerse from company in his latter days and much given to solitariRess." Douglas Jer- rold, one of the keenest wits of the Victo- rian era, was not only grave, but anxious in demeanor; and Thomas Hood, the elder, who could make screaming jokes even out
 of the complication of maladies which tor
 tured him, was facially the picture of sad
 ness. When we turn to the two great mas
 ters of humor and pathos of our age, it will
 be remembered that the habituaI expression
 of Charles Dickens was one of concentrated
 sternness, and that the ordinary mien of
 William Makepeace Thackeray was of extra
 judicial gravity. There is a host of good
 stories in the ''Table Talk' of Samuel Rog-
 ers but the outward and visible appearance
 of the banker-poet was the reverse of mirth-
 full It ghastly and cadaverous to an
 alarming degree; so much so, indeed, that
 French footman to whom Rogers had on en-
 tering room, given by mistake the card of
 Thomas Moore instead of his own, an-
 nounced him to the company as Monsieur
 le Mort"
 It is curious that criticism should have
 taken so little cognlzance of the fact that
 ''the original Joe Miller" should have been,
 in spirit if not in substance, neither Joe him
 self nor John Motley alias 'Elijah Jenkins,
 Esq, but the greatest, meanest, wisest of
 mankind" Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam
 and Viscount St. Albans. Lord Macaulay in
 his review of Basil Montagu's "Life and
 Works of Bacon," incidentally mentions
 that the illustrious philosopher "dictated
 from memory, without referring to any
 book, on day when illness had rendered
 him incapable of serious study, the best col, 1a@ z sa,G, ALA TT
 dents of the 300 and odd ''apophthegms" dictated by Bacon to his secretary will fully indorse the justice of Macaulay's verdict They show the amazing depth and variety of his learning, his wonderful memory, his shrewd appreciation of the good things said by his contemporaries, and his own keen sense of wit and humor. There are few "Joes" equal to the joke related by Bacon himself of the 'Splain old man at Buxton who sold besoms," and who, on young spend thrift coming to him for a broom upon trust, made answer to him, Friend, hast thou no money? Borrow of thy back and borrow of thy belly. They'll ne'er ask thee again; I shall be dunning thee every day" Again there is the story of the witty rogue who bargained with a lace man to be supplied for certain small sum with as much lace as would measure ''from ear to ear," and who went on to explain that one ear was on his head, but that the other was nailed to the pill lory at Bristol. Then there is the irresist- ibly comic story of the impudent thief in the dock who, knowing his case to be desperate cried out when he was called upon to plead, 1T charge you in the kings name to seize upon and take away that man in the red experimenting the judge-'for I go in dan ger of my life for fear of him" Those fa- miliar with the modern American 'Joe'' of the suitor who had lost his cause, and fling ing down $5 bill on the table of the court, exclaimed, ''Fine me that for contempt"
 f "apophthegms" the story of the sailor who, being fined two shillings for swearing, asked what the mulct was for cursing. He was answered sixpence whereupon he pulled a half-crown from his pocket, and cursing the court all round as company of knaves and fools bade the clerk keep the half crown, as he never liked Changing of money" American humorists have indeed incurred, albeit perhaps unconsciously, heavy amount of indebtedness to the old jest books for some of their newest and dryest stories. There has been recently paraphrased and calmly appropriated by Mark Twain an an- ecdote of Scotchman who enters an eating house on Holborn Hill and calls for penny loaf. Then he says that he has changed his mind, and that he will have a penny worth of beer instead. This process he re- peats twelve times, and he is then going on his way. rejoicing and full of beer, when the keeper demands payment for his beer. 'fI give you 8 penny loaf for each mug of beer," answers the canny Scot. 'tBut you have not paid for the loaves," continued he incensed Boniface 'tBut I had them not" replies the Scot. This story is to be 'ound in an old cheap book published late in he seventeenth century and it Is very prob .bly survival of some medieval joke cur .ent among the school-men, since its humor hinges on a false premise in logic. For the est the original jest may be many thousands ,f years old, and may be one of Julius Cesar, s collection of apophthegms, the loss ,f which Bacon, in the introduction to his ,wn "ante-Joe Millerisms," so pathetically leplores. There is nothing new under the in the matter Of jokes
 A large quantity of erass in a sprinrfield