Mexico weekly ledger., 1883-01-25
Eli Perkins-A Portion of his Lecture.

lecture to a large and fashionable and
attentive audience Monday night,
which he kept convulsed with laugh
ter for two hours. His lecture was
six columns long, and we have only
room for one or two points, reported
as delivered. On being introduced
by Judge W. o. Forrist, he said:
"There are kinds of wit and hui
mor-sensuous and intellectual. One
YOU see with the eye as when you
look at the clown in the circus, with
the white stars on one side and the
red stripes on the other. The other,
intellectual wit, has to 60 to the
brain and be reflected before there
can be laughter, as in the case of a
paradox. To illustrate, you all re-
member the two men who were talk
ing about the u and the moon,
when one maintained that the moon
was # more account than the sun.
How can the moon be of more ac-
count than the sum- asked his COM
panion.
why, because the moon shines in
the night when it is dark, while the
sun shines in the day time when it
is light enough without it. (Laugh-
ter.)
Then you remember the case OF
the man who was trying to pull on
his boots. He pulled away until he
broke off one of the straps, when his
friend said: why, Charley, you'll
never be able to get those boots on
till you've worn 'em a SPELL"
"And you see,' continued the
speaker, as a ripple Of laughter went
through the audience, ''that the lon.
ger you think of it the funnieri it gets.
Another, and perhaps the best para.
dox in the English language, was that
splendid paradox of Artemus Ward
when he turned around to his friend
and said: I'm bound to live within
my means if l have to borrow money
to do it, (Laughter.) Now there
is no laughter in that paradox for 8
fool, neither for a wise man until his
brain has acted. You can repeat
such paradoxes to a fool all day long,
and he'll look you straight in the
face and won't smile once, and if you
have got any fools in your family
every family has a fool or two
daughter drowning the sentence
William N. Evarts once stumbled
into a splendid paradox. He was
making a dinner speech in Chicago.
and was complimenting the West in
one of those glowing periods of his
Il like the West he commenced, q
like her self-made men, and the more
l travel West, the more / meet with
her public men, the more / am salts.
fed of the truthfulness of the bible
statement that the wise men came
from the East
The end of Mark Twain's due
story is another remarkable paradox.
Imean when he tried to tell the au'
dience how opposed he was to fight
ing a duel. Il am opposed to fight.
ing duels, he said, so seriously and
religiously opposed to fighting a due
that 1 have made up my mind solemn
ly and earnestly that if anybody evrl
comes to me and challenges me tc
fight a duel. I'll take him out behind
the house and kill him. daughter. -,
Now, let me ask the question what
causes laughter? The rhetoricians
all agree that laughter is caused by
wit then they 90 on to say that wi
is a 'short-lived surprise They al
agree to this definitlon-Lord Kames
Blair, Whately and Wayland. Blu
. they are all wrong. Laughter is al
ways caused by some deformity il
art or nature. 1t is caused by de
formed music, deformed grammar
deformed rhetoric, deformed logi,
and a thousand other deformities tina
/ might mention. If surprise alon,
would cause laughter then those pas
sengers who were pitched over Ash
tabula bridge would have screamed
with laughter. (Applause.) Ther
suppose you were walking along ant
a serpent darts out in front of You
1t would be a short-lived surprise
shsrt-lived for the serpent (laughter)
but it wouldn't produce laughter
would it? But if you were walking
along and you see a double-headeC
rooster running both ways to ge
away from itself you'd all burst on
laughing.
Deformed grammar is a very fertil,
source of fun. To illustrate, 1 heart
q little girl learning to read the othel
day, and l called her to me and said
Didn't you have a hard time learn
ing to read?' Yes she said, but
kept on learning to read and bimeby
1 rode (Laughter.) You remem
Der the little girl who did not wan
her sister to skin a potato for her,
You need not skin a potato for me.
Jenny she said, Il have one already
skun.'" (Laughter.)
1.-The pun and conundrum," he
said, ''are simply the ambiguous mid.
die term in the syllogism. To il
lustrate, take the following conun,
drum and then change it:
Why is Fred Douglass a wicked
man? Because he is supported by
black legs (Laughter.)
Now put the conundrum into ,
syllogism, and it will read thus:
First Premise-'Any man support
ed entirely by black legs must be
very wicked
Second Premise-'Fred Douglass
is supported entirely by black legs
Conclusion-'Therefore Frederick
Douglass must be a very wicked
man."
The speaker then gave many laugh,
provoking illustrations of deformed
logic, etc., which We have not space
to report.