The Red Cloud chief., 1884-11-21
A SENSE or hUMoR.


a Gin which May Be Possessed. Bss Gas
Not H. Acquired.
VIVA. dull reading are the works Of
an author who can not comprehend .
Joke. There are writers like Sir Thomas
Brown. whose witty fancy enliyens the
driest subjects. and there ar. others
who hold a pen Of lead in treating
Of the most interesting matters. The
elder historians mostly possessed q
keen sense Of humor; the pages Of
Froissart and DE Confines ar. most
amusing reading. How drly does the
latter remark upon the peculiarly in
the wars of England which recent
events seem TO show Is unfortunately
not obsolete in these days. The En-
glish are the brayest nation in the
world in the field. but in matters Of
policy their enemies easily outwit
them. and what they gain in battle
they lose at the council thus
was King Ed bubbicd and outwitted.'
How quaint, too, is his description Of
the solitary Parliament Louis ri. sum
moned during his reign, when he called
il together tO please the people. but
took care only to summon such per-
SOM as would not oppose his designs.
What a contrast Is presented by the
pages Of Burnet, who might almost
stand as the type Of a man devoid of the
power Of approaching the humorous
side Of ANYTHING. Those readers o! the
good bishops ponderous history who
possess an edition with Swifts notes
addef, NAV, however, find much
amusement in their p~erusal OF the
work. The wicked wit of the tory
Dean plays around the prosy text Of the
whig writer, and il As cruel ~ MIR.
Burchell's muttered Fudge" in de-
stroyinc the effect Of the solemn MARIA
ton. When. for example. in his pre-
face, Burnet INDUCES IN a long perwa-
ton about the sacred duty of an
historian to tell the truth. and in an
excess Of conscientiOusness. ~ his
reader take even his own carefully pm
pared history with "a grain of allow
ance." Swift notes: Il will take Ids
warning" Again. when BURNT Is
describing the extreme length OF
the services OF the Scotch
church: Il remember on this Fast
Dav six sermons Were preached
without intermission. was there N.Y.
self, and was a little weary of 80 tedious
a service" Swift has the cruelty to
add, ..Burnet. at this time. was eight
a old?' But still more like MIR.
Burchell is the curt Sad trash,
Dark Nonsense which Swift appendS
"a some Of the most solemn moraliz-
inCs of the historian. Yet witty
a. was the great dean himself. his sense
of the humorous was of Il different de-
Acription to the genial humor Of ChauceI
or Shakespeare. They laughed IT the
absurdities of their fellows; but their
laughter was of the kindly. good
natured description. in which even its
object himself might have joined. The
bitter satirical wit Of Pope and Smith
is of a widely different character from
the genial mirth which diverts without
wounding. 1t is the browning quality
Of many of III greatest huporists that
they are humorous without being
malicious: that their wit is thoroughly
free from Miniature; that they acknOwl-
edge all the good in humanity while
laughing at its little weaknesses. That
some Of their works are tinged with
the coarsencss of their age it is inn
possible to deny; it was the fashion Of
their era to be. more Outspoken than in
these days; and yet, considering some
of our modern literature, it is difficult
to see that the older writers are worse
offenders than mani of our modern
brethren, who have not the same genius
redeem their pages.
The sense Of humor is a gift which
can not be acquired; it must be innate
There still exist persons who will feeb-
" ask to have some good joke Eek
planned to them These unfortunatcs
are blind in a mental sense, and n
only be resigned to their intirmity. The
sense of humor is lacking in them. As
the ear for music or the eve to appre-
ciate a picture is lacking in others. To
try to cultivnte this missing power is as
hopeless as were the efforts Of the Ger
man Baron (Eaentioned by Wahab. or
one of his correspondence to cultivate
sprightliness. This wealthy Teuton,
being refused by an English lady on the
ground that hewas mot lively enough"
annoyed his neighbors in the Don be-
low by spending hours leaping solemn
" over his table. On being asked
the reason for this strange conduct. he
gravely replied. ''J'apprends d'etre
viz ('.I am learning to be lively"). 1t
is a pitiable sight to behold a person
actually devoid of a sense of humor
cropping dimly after the point Of a joke.
1t is the old story of the Scotch Judge
who. hearing a joke m day in court.
''simmered' the subject in his mind till
the morrow when the point of the joke.
suddenly broke upon him. and he cried:
Il haze We moo" Some persons never
attain to even this tardy enlightenment,
and will freeze a good ~story-teller by
solemnly asking: ..Was that a joke?"
Equally devoid of a'true sense Of hui
NOR are the persons who perpetrate
foolish hoaxes and utter poor jokes.
Practical jokes. so fashionable some
generations back, are the los idiotic
of all tests. What wit is there in being
a greater falsehoOd teller than your
neighbors suspect You to be?-London
Globe.
Robert Bonner, writing of the
groom who takes are of Maud -, saws: