The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-10-13
WIT AND HUMoR HERE AND
 THERE.
New York Graphic.

New York Graphic.
 When one talks of the wit and the hnmor of different peoples he has a large subject. A humorist Is very sel- dom a wit, and in most cases c wit Is SO far from humorist that any coarse satire against himself strikes him like the broad end of wedge. A humor- ist is not sensitive. He has c large mouth, and he shows his teeth to the throat if he Is the man who Is worsted in good stories one against another. A wit has & keen knife, and 1t cuts without regard to the quick suffering attending its work; but he Is the most sensitive of men. Let the knife come back to him, and he is apt to whine like child over his wound, forget ting altogether the trivial menace that invited the retaliation. For he meant nothing in his sharp words but bit of rhetoric that had 6 nice sound and seemed to meet the situation better than other words might and though the words went to the heart ot the other man, why should the man be 90 mean as to send back the same kind of playful bitterness2 Your wit and your humorist are as different as the articles they deal in. There is pop ular impression that & humorist is a wit, and a wit . humorist. They are as far apart as coarse clown and very respectable undertaken. While each appreciates the other and gives him the benefit of a sad trade smile, like the subdued recognition of worth that prevails at decent funeral be- tween the remotely connected mourners for the corpse, all the winds of heaven blow between them, and they do not come together alter the services till the next corpse comes on. A wit is good fellow for an hour You love him for his brightness and hate him for his apparent Halice-he being as ignorant of injury as if there were nothing of that kind in any of his pretty stings-and he hates you If you give him thrust for thrust, the offense lying in the fact that you haven't brains enough to see innocence of motive in the keenness of his words {; but your man of laughter, who does absurdity for the love of 1t yodr good fellow, whose loudness smacks your cheeks, roofs your upper jaw with old ale, gently boxes your ears and slaps your knees, that man is with you as long as you can keep him, and when he goes he takes with him half your heart. For that humorist-who is mt hn fa .N, before 1t learns to chirp ss to every 'cute thing which is said in few syl- fables that best of all good fellows-- has between his humor and his heart but the brief tissue that amounts to nothing. He has great tears as he has great laughter. His nature is con- trolled by incidents, as 6 violin gives to the sweep of the bow. His fun and his pathos are so closely connected st times that you can't tell which from which, and he doesn't know the diff ference himself. The wit has thin lips and cold smile with good deal of speculation in 1t. The humorist has fat cheeks, and laughter rolls from his lips as water bubbles at the spring, without thought, or cost, or caleula- tion as to results. The fun is for those who like 1t, and if nobody likes it 1t IS just as well. The humorist has puffed his countenance with his loud absurdity, and, having satisfied him. self, he is as well satisfied If the thing goes no higher than his own ears.
 The ideas of wit and humor that prevail in different countries afford a curious study. A Scotchman is the most appreciative of all men of a joke or an absurdity after it has been knocked into his head with club, but the club must be very heavy. An Irishman catches thing of that kind on the fly, and sends 1t back with something better. The best wit has been Engli wit, because it has been the conservative article needing more or less serious reflection before the small and genteel article of smile. But there Is no natural humor in the Scotch or the English. There is noth- ing of that kind with them that is not pumped and unnatural. They never had Abe Lincoln, whose common sense was illuminated by the best of all broad humor, and an English Josh Billings with his quaint philosophy would appear to them to be crank. | ---s--s-~-~-.----
 ConSumption Cured.