The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-10-10
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 Nis a matter of sepEoach to our social scientisks that the habits and customs cf tho joke hava received @ little attention. lt h an euor of tho vulgar 10 suppose that a joke is literary meteor that flashes across the intellectual sky tor a moment and then disappears forever. Even trained observers have been de- essaassseeaa essaassseeaa late expressing much the same opinion and q celebrated scientist, whose services to mankind justify us in concealing his name in connection with this charge, was heard to declare that Q ske vas " an instance ot intellectual alteration unworthy cf serious attention" Nothing could be further from the facts. Leaving aside any discussion ot the tigst cause of the joke. which would involve us in the ohscurisies of metaphysical discus sion, VIC may state boldly that the joke has well.de6ned habits and peculiarities, aud study ol its history and develop ment Is well worthy the attention of the foremost minds in science.
 it Is evident to any observer that the joke may be accurately divided into racea and nassonali,ies. No one who had paid the slightest attention to the subject could possibly mistake 6 Germap joke for French joke, or French joke for . British joke. In fact, they are as plainly marked of from each other a. any two breeds oi dogs, and each undoubtedly has its different habits, An adequate discussion of tha subject can not even be outlined in this column. Nevertheless. as small contribution to an important subject. we offer the following account of a single member oi the large and il- terestng family known as the American joke:
 IL is eight months or more since the chestnut joke first saw the light. It's birth Is involved in obscurity, in spite oi earnest efforts to trace It's ancestry. la the early days of it's existence |, gave no sign of coming greatness. We know the story o: the scAcel at Bricnue, where Bourienne took the prizes over Napoleon {; Bourienne is now remembered not as the "prbe boy" but as Napoleon's secretary. In like manner the tin-pan joke or the aigses-hsby joke os even date with the chestnut seemed surer of fame At the time the chestnut appeared tho paint-the- ,own-red joke was at the height of its fame. It's monthly appearance in Jam uaEy was twenty-six thousand seven hun. dred and ior,y.six. which Is surpassed only by it's unprecedented November record of thirty. eight thousand nine hun. dred, due to the local disturbing cause of Democratic victory that month as the polls. For the same month the chestnut appeared in public but a beggarlv one hundred and eleven times. Previous 10 that date 1t was so insignificant as not to seem worthy of record. Starting from this point, we see the gradual rise of the chestnut and the corresponding decline of paint n,-the-town-red. In February the chestnut appeared twelve hundred and forty-tour times, and the pAint-the-town- red appeared twenty-five thousand nine hundred and fourteen times. This does not necessarily indicate any falling of in tho popularity ot the latter, for tho effect of hard times was most severely felt that month, the total output oi jokes being six per cent under that of January bat the increase of the chestnut joke under such unfavorablc circumstances is truly signiti- cant The following month pAiut-the. town-red nearly held it's own. appearing twenty-five thousand seven hundred and nineteen times, but the chestnut increased to thirty-two hundred. The following month 1t increased by eleven hundred, while the paint-th -town.Ied declined by nearly the same number. But in the month of May inc chestnut ieapsd at one astonishing bound to fourteen thousand seven hundred and eighty appearances, its only rival coming down something less than the same figure.
 IL is scarcely necessary to go further into detaila The August returns give q total of moro than twenty nine thousand appearances for the chestnut, while its rival Is all but as extinct as Mir. Craw- lords dsdo." The reports tor the first half of tho present month indicate that the total will fall little if any below that of August, although tho return. of.the- mmer-boarder has acted as a disturb ing element. We may assume, hos ever, from the foregoing figures that the chestnut has reached its full develop ment, and Is doomed to speedy decline. lt is dangerous to generalise from but two or three instances, but from the obvious similarity of the careers of the successful American joke, 1t is almost certain that their existence is determined by hxed and immusable laws. We have not the figures at hand to verify this statement but we pronounce 1t in all confidence.
 We may suppose, therefore, that the chestnut must follow the path already trodden by piint-the-town-red ard its predecessors, and, sfter seeing the rise ot some successful rival that is even nov in the obscure throng, will become extinct in about eight months. Us rise has taken an equal length of time. In spite Of a fcw weil-known exceptions where joke has been able to survive in a tooihleas, mumbling condition for two or shTee years, we may safely state that the aver age life of the successful American joke is sixteen, or, at the most, eighteen months. The subiec, is one of much ln-