New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-11-15
WIT AND HUMOR OF WOMEN.

TIE WIT OF WOMEN By KATE sASnoRN So svo,
PIP. 2l5. Funk Wagnais
This book seems TO have been pro- oked by
statement of Mr.. Richard Grant Whites. IN "lhe
Fate of Mansfield Humphreys that sense OF
humor is the "rarest of qualities In women" In
ono form or another Mr. White repeatedly expressed
the same idea. We have lately been reading two OF
his essays which discuss tho character OF Losahnd;
in ono he saws that she had not only wit.
which not a few women have. but humor, which is
the possession of very few women indeed; in the
other he attributes TO her quicincss OF wit ana
a sense of humor which are tue most uncommon
intellectual traits of her SEX IL Will be seen that
Mr. White was not quite consistent; but even III
It's most restricted his dogma was untrue.
We must class it among those amazing MISTAKES
with which this accomplished interesting ana
sometimes wrong headed gentleman did now ana
then entertain us.
Miss Sanborn makes no distinction between VIII
and humor 1t is true tnat the difference IS not
ALWAYS easy TO define; but the broad general line Of
division is PLAIN enough and if she had called her
! hook The IIumor of Women she would have
indicated more accurately the nature Of It's prin-
cipal contents as well as its aptncss as reply TO
/ Mr. White OF wit. properly called, tue uasAng
expression of a complete happy thought 1T contains
few specimens Yet the chronicles OF the queens OF
society, the gossip of literature, the records oil
salous the personal experiences OF living persons.
the pages of few wOmens books. are full OF
! brilliant examples Of that git by which Providence
has so often seen ft to compensat" for the want of
beauty or to doublc its power of mischief With
certain type of woman, quick wit seems to be the
natural product OF education and social experience
! an aptitude rpening easily INTO an accomplish
| ment and cultivated to a nigh point of perfection
Of that richer and rarer Wiz which rests upon wide
knowledge of life and books, and carries always the
suggestion of something wiser than It says. woman
perhaps has shown less than men. Her wit delights
IN audacons paradox and bold untruth, sudden
intuitons rather than subtle judgment, plIuant or
cruel personality. the sparkle aud surprise OF tho
! passing occasion But suspect that the diiier-
ence-if there Is dherence-betwccn the best wit
of woman and the best wit Of man IS an affair, alter
all, of education, not of sex.
AS for humOr, which includes perception OF the
| incoprruons the grotesquc the strongly individual.
the eccentric and the comically perplcXinS, and
which is not content with sudden saliles but
| follows n well-markcd vein. Miss Sanborn makes it
| pretty clear without formal discu 'sion of the
point, that hore men and women meet on sub
stamtially the same footing. If women have
| produced absolutely fewer humorous writings than
men tney have probably produced relatively as
MANY considering the whole bulk of their literary
product Make the proper allowance for woman $
|
discriminate between her sense Of numor and that
of man. 1t il only in the literary exhibition OF
humor that she manifests any ihicrlority and here
the inferiorty Is not one Of STYLE but Of original
creative power Women do not create humorous
characters we cannot imagine woman arriving at
the conception of q Sancho Panza, n Sam Weller OF
a Micawbor, who arc humorous TO their very
essence and not merely in their dro sayings; but
in pcrceyng and reporting the humorous traits pi
those about her. and painting those traits with the
true imaginative touch which distinguishes art
from realism, she has no superior. Mrs. Stoves
Topsy and Sam Lawson are foremost types of thia
bumor of observation; and many of the women'a
novels of the day are rich in the same quality 1t
abounds in the novels of Jane Austen for which
Miss sanborn has a singular Interpretation and
il il extraordinarily fine in George Eliot.
| OF Mrs Stoves Night in a Canal-Boat,' Miss
Sanborn says that il any one can read it without
shouts of laughter and hearty acknowledgment OF
its hunlor, he should be captured as curiosity and
sent 10 the Smithsonian Institution" AS we have
read it swithout shouts, we fear that we must be
considered eligible for tho iguominious exhibition
1t belongs in fact to primitive style OF humor oi
which Miss Sanborn has included too much IN hel
bright volume-the humor OF physical dscomiort'
aud annoyauces Essentially this is the same sort
of comedy as the tumbng of Pantaloon, the stuffed
club the sawdust sausage, the practical joke or thu
regular autumn Jest of the country newspapers
about putting up stoves. 1t Is the delight Of
children and rustics, and OF all that uncultivatet
multitude who find In children and rustcs thu
measure of their intellectual activity We mus
confess that the style fingers 10 the minor writings
Of American women long after the men have out
grown 1t. But 1t was onco almost universal "Dol
Quixote" 10 overloaded with 1t, ns Charles Lam
REALISTICALLY complained, and 1t interferes not