The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1883-01-20

tiohs nave oceh copied anu publish
ed during the last fifty years.
If the Greeks derived their civil.
cation from Egypt, they improved
prodiglously upon their model. In
one particular, the Greeks have per
haps never been surpassed even to
the present day, and that is IN the
art of dramatic burlesquo. Better
comedies have been written than
those OF the Greek Ar;stophanes,
but no man has ever had greater
power than he to compel laughter.
Even to us, who can with difficulty
enter Into the spirit of bis prodnc.
tons, some of the scenes in his com
edies arc diverting, apart from
their interest as relics of a great lit.
erature,
Many schoolboys remember that
precious page in tho old Greek Read
er containing a list of short para
graphs given as specimens of Greek
wit. They may call to mind also
how startled they were to find that
some jokes, which still occasionally
figure in the comic columns of our
newspapers, are more than two
thousand years old. 1t ls idle to
rail at old jokes, for nearly all jokes
are old. In that Crock page, there
was the ANXIOUS mother who forbade
her son to go into the water until
he had learned to swim likewise,
the passenger in sinking ship who
laid hold of the anchor to save him
self.
An English scholar has recently
published collection of witty Greek
paragraphs, which, however, are
much more wise than comic. For
example
A wise man being asked why phi
losophers frequent the houses of the
rich, although the rich rarely return
ed their visits, replied that phloso-
pliers know what they need rich
men do not.
The same person, on hearing some
one boast of his skill in diving, ask.
ed: care you not ashamed to boast
Of .sifaV=any dolphin can2do 9'
A speaker ADVISED the Athenians
TO vote that asses were horses. This
being objected to, he SAID But
you make men generals by a public
vote who have no military quail.
ties"
There are several tests in this col
lection which of late years have
been frequently used by our own
carcaturists. Hero is one: Dio.
genes, seeing certain officials taking
10 prison a steward who had stolen
a cup, said: "Here are tho big
thieves carrying off the little thief"
Another Greek philosopher used
to say that laws were like SPIDERS
webs, because they would hold a
fly, but were no obstacle to larger
marauders.
These sentences are very well in
their way; but | am afraid they
would not command high price
from tho publishers Of comic papers
at the present time. 1t is only
when the Greeks are burlesquing
their gods and their philosophers
that they become truly comic, and
force people to laugh whether they
approve or dlsapprove.
We can say the same of the hui
NOR which has come down to us
from the Middle Ages. All kinds
OF crude comicalities are still to be
seen carved in the oak and stone of
ancient cathedrals, and for two cen
turtles at least tho most freouent
subject of the comic artist was King
Death. The possible suddenness Of
death and the impossbility of final
~ avoiding it, wero exhibited IN the
most ludicrous light. One of our
New York collectors has many hun.
dreds of such pictures, of which |
have room to mention only one. A
miser has thrust his body down deep
into a heavy iron bound chest.
Death comes along, and with a grin
shuts down upon him forever tho
heavy lid.
In modern times we have ,esrned
to joke more agreeably, and with
perfect decorum. At the present
moment America supplies mankind
with the greater part Of its weekly
budget of fun. Out of every thous.
and newspapers that will be printed
this week in the English language,
probably nine hundred will contain
some American jokes, and very
many OF them will be good onos.