New-York tribune., 1884-02-26
THE srPTICAL or ANcIEYr JOKES.

THE STPVITAL or ANCIENr JOKES.
An ENGLISH paper recently published. as having
rorcutiv occurred in Dublin story Of three young
mon who dined al a hotel and. pretending to dis
pute who should pay the bill, proposed to the
waiter that he should be bndioded. ana tAai Inc
first he caught should discharge the reckoning. Ot
course the Young sharpers all slipped away Is soon
AZ he was blindl0lded and left him groping about
the e,nntv room. Now this is not much Of joke
but IFS hoary antiquity AT least has claim upon
our consideration. We do not know whether II
can be Traced back to the Sanscrit, though 1t Is
ouite po,,ible. but il is certainly rs old as the
Gcstr Romoaorua. and il is to be found i'll the jest
hooks of three hundred years ago, when 1t was
already in tine sere and yellow leaf. Aud II belongs
~ class of stories which appear to
revolye through modern journalism with a
rhcthmic cvclical movement, the laws ol Whlch
have NOT vet been observed and systcmatzed
some Of these venerable Joe MilleTs-though it Is
Of course an anachronism so to designate thelh'
since they belong to a far earlier period than the
Millerim epOch-can be traced back to the DahhS
of the Gangcs and the Hydaspes
Not few were probably told among the work
men engaged in erecting the Tower OF Babel They
are encountered in the Mishna and Oemara o. the
Talmud They occur as episodes IN the Mahabha-
rata and the Ramayana. Nishnu told them 10
tbe great son of Arjuna. The commentators IN the
You'd Avesta. the Athar9a Neda and the Nendldad
were familiar with them The Egyptian priests Of
ptba and Isis were tired of hearing them. The
pbpuiciaps carried them to the Egean, no doubt.
and il may be cOnjectured that evaporation at
their rendition contributed to the production OF
the Social Wars of the later Greek Republics The
ipdrstructibilitv of matter" from typograph-
ica1 noint of viewl was never more concluslycly
demonstrated than by the survival of these eternal
iol,os "Are cannot wither them, nor custom stale
tbeir infinite variety" Their reappoarance, as with
cometary eccentricty they crop out III the columns
of the press. carries the mind back to times long
antedating the elastic and phenomenal memory OF
tbe oldest inhabitantD Nor can the modern dls-
,uises which they assume conceal their archaic
character We recognize them under every change.
They. are the Wandering Jews Of anecdOuc lit1r-
otrre They are perpetual illustrations OF the
.,oe,s remork that there is nothing new under the
mn They appeal to the same human emotions as
old They tickle the human midrlh as IN the
do,s becore the Flood. The oneness OF Humanity
tends revealed in the very fact Of their perennial
s,ccess. and they also serve to show how limited
:; tho common stock of fun, and how often, like the
common stock Of matter in the universe IL mas 10
bc used over again in the interests OF cosnncal
economy. ,, a..
Itisa strange if not solemn thought that the
American of the Period may AT any time be Ialgn-
inc ot Jokes which can hardly have been treSh
when the Glacial Period came TO an end ana
the Cave Men were waggng their doliehocephano
beads at one another and working their progna'h-
ou, laws over their banqucts Of raw meat.