Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-22
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.
"EL1 PERKINS" LECTURE.

ELI PERKINS" LECTURE.
"Eh Perkins" lectured at the Congrega-
tional Church Saturday evening for the BEN
eft of the Young Mems Christian Assccia-
ton. A fsir-sizsd audience was in attend
ance The speaker is humorous without
effort, is ready in his wit, gets his auditor
very close to him, soon has his hearers in sym.
pathy with his vein OF humor, and entertains
them with a sort of abandon that is as re.
freshing as it is socially agreeable. He lect.
ured Oh 1.-The Philosophy of Fun" which he
insists On spelling phonetically, " FiIosify
1t was disquisition on wit and humor, and
light account of the Perkins family, q
mythical body that he feels privileged to hold
up in any light he chooses. He said there
ara two kinds Of wit and humor-seEsual and
intellectual. One you see with the eye, as when
You look az the clown in the circus the other
has to go to the brain and be reflected upon
before there can be laughter, as in the case OF
paradox. To illustrate, you all remember
the two men who were talking about the sun
and the moon, when one maintained that the
moon was of more account than the sun
"How ia that Z" asked the other. "Why
the moon, you know, shines in the night,
IL
daytime when it is light enough without
ILaughter.] Perhaps the best paradox in the
English language is that of Artemus Ward,
when he turned around to friend and said
I'm bound to live within my means if ]
had to borrow money to do it." Laughter
Now there Is no laughter in that paradox 70,
a fool, neither TOR wise man until his brain
has acted. You can give such paradoxes to
a fool all day long, and he'll look you straight
fl.a 600 I'D IL,
NJ. Evarts ones stumbled into a splendid
paradox. He was making dinner speech
In Chicago, and was complimenting the West
like the West" he commenced. Il like
her self-msde men, and the more l travel
west, the more l meet with her public men,
the more am satisfied with the truthfulnsss
of the Bible statement that the wise men
came from the East" loud laughter |
What causes laughter. The rheto.
caused by wit; then they go on to say
that wit is a short-lived surprise" They
all agree to this deGnition-Kane, Blair,
Whately and Wayland. But they are all
wrong. Laughter is always caused by some
deformity in art or nature. It is caused by
deformed music, deformed grammar, de-
formed rhetoric, defOrmed logic, and q
thousand other defornities If surprise
alone would cause laughter then those pas
sengers who were pitched over Ashtabula
bridge would have screamed and reared.
lApplause. It is q short-lived surprise, but
it don't provoke laughter, does il? But if
you were walking along and would see
double-headed rooster running both ways to
get away from itself laughter you'd burst
out laughing. Deformed grammar is very
fertile source Of fun. To illustrate To a
little girl learning to read l said Didn't
you have hard time learning to read y
ayes" she said, 81 did have hard time
learning to read, but l kept on learning TO
read, and bimeby l rode" Laughter. !
You remember the little girl VINO did not
want her sister to skin a potato for her.
You need not skin a potato for me,
Jenny" she said =" have one already skun. :"
He gave sons very comicat illustrations OF
what he termed deformed oratory and de-
formed logic, which he held to be the pun
and the conundrum. The pun and conun-
drum, he said, are simply the ambiguous
middle term in the syllogisn. To illustrate,
he took this conundrum and then changed it ::
Why is Fred. Douglass very wicked man ?
Because he is supported by black legs.
Laughter Now, put the conundrum into
PSI gisrn, and it will read thus: First
premise any man supported entirely by black
{ be very wicked second premise,
Fred luglass is supported entirely by black
Lex INCLUSION, therefore Frederick Doug
tass l,. be . very wicked man. Applause, ]
TINS leraarer spoke for nearly two hours, but
.re soing will convey some idea Of his
method.
SERIOUSLY INJURED. = Saturday night,
about II o'clock, the circus at Sixteenth and
K streets was besieged by a lot of bad boys.
They made night hideous with their noise,
cut open the tents aud dressing rooms with
their knives, and in various other ways
destroyed the property belonging to the
circus. The proprietors begged of the boys
to desist. Finally. finding that they would
not leave without they were forcibly com
PEELED to, clubs and whips were brought into
use. In the melee that ensued, Joseph
Barns, q young man 10 years OF age, who re-
sides VITA his parents at Twenty-third and
M streets, was struck over the back of the
head with club and very seriously hurt.
He was knocked senseless, and for time his
companions thought him dead. He after.
wards revived and was conveyed to his home.
CT Howard, ons of the circus management,
was arrested yesterday for the commission OF
the deed, and charged with an attempt to
commit murder. He was lodged In the city
prison to await the result of the wounds in
fiictad on young Burns. a reporter OF this
paper called to see the lad at u o'clock last
night. No doctor had up to that time been
called in to dress his wounds. He was rest
ing pretty well, talked freely and apparently
is in no immediate danEer OF dying.
AS THEATER.-Work begins this morn.
ing for D. j. Simmons, lessee of the Metro
politan Theater, to transform the Pavilion
into theater, for use while the Metropolitan
is being rebuilt. The main hall will contain
the stage and auditorium, and the small hall
fine green-room and the dressing.room The
In and Of Eha in
hall. and will be 30 by so feet in size. If il
Is made sufficiently high spectators on the
main floor will be able to see the stage quite
IS well as it the floor inclined, as in . regular
theater. All the scenery now at the Metro
poIitan will be placed upon the new stage.
The seats now in the dress circle and parquet
will be placed on the floor of the main hall.
Around this hall gallery is to be construct.
ed, containing five rows OF seats. The capac-
ity of the room will be for about L. 200 people
seated.
METROPOLITAN THEATER To-NIGHT.-To
night and tomorrow night the Bric-a- BraC
Club will give entertainments at the Metro
nolitan Thester. The following are among
those who will take y part ia the entertain
ments: Miss FleissIer and Miss Milhken,
sonranos: Mrs. Tracy Lessmsn Gsttmanr
and Miss Patton, readers; MIR. Buchanan
and Z, male Quartet Professor fleissner arc
Mr.. CosSrove, inssrumensslists; also lady
accompanies Ugo Talbo, the great tenor
Ca both nights will b. given Mother Goose
OnadriIle - Decorative Sisters" esthetiC
tahIeau. six pictures; " Accepted y Due
in the Snow = "AIssked Ball :" Bunch O
Bnttercups . the Broom Drill" Ia al
over sixty ladies and gentlemen OF Sacra
mento on the stage, and a full orchestra
Tickets. 70 cents; gallery, so cents.
HKlrERKEIr PIcNIc.-The Heiterkeit So
cial Club held its annual picnic at East Pari
Yesterday. Is drew cut a large company
which was orderly, full of the spirit of relax
alton. and that enjoyed itself to the tull
Thore was perfect sobriety, good humor anc
nance The First Artillery band Furnished
P IsS ',,,,s;c for The dances. There were n,
games or prizes, except ths two gate prizes
sor ticket holders The ladies' prizs wa
drawn to the number 165. and the men
nr;ze bv William Gresnlsw. The picnic W A
1vsII managed throughout, and was under TIL
direction of the following committee; Gu
Hapelstein, President; Henry Guthrie, JonI
Boiler, John Wheel, A Niezsl, henry AIii
Ter, Edward Miller g. j. fuchs, I. Jurgens
ii, Stuber, II. Runckel, Herman Dohn.
RIB. CURTIS CoMIsG.-One of the creates
cards on the American stage, M. B. Curtis
will appear at the Metropolitan Theatel
next Thursday evening, May 25th. He !
supported by his own selected company 10
his successful drama +" Samuel of Posen." d
has performed this drama throughout tn
United States for weeks at time, K
crowded houses. 1t had run OF tweiv'
weeks At Haverly's Theater in New I ork.
Cam or THAEKs.-Mrs. Sarah Wallis 0
afssfeld. Santa Clara county, mother of tn
"a, ,sspi5 Wallis, returns thanks to the Pa
.t1tsI Life Insurance Company for th'