Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-09
THE SUNNY SIDE OF LIFE.
LAUGHTER THAT MAKES ONE FOR
GET THE DAILY GRIND.

The Different Standards of Eumor-In
Oiden Times When Ideas Were Driven
Into Pates with Bludgeons-Humori sts
Pass Away and Are Forgotten.
s'Why we laugh" is question often asked,
but the sources of laughter are SO many and lie
SO far apart that it would be no light task to
enumerate them. The jest has not all seasons
for its own. A large and respectable class of
persons are unable to recognize joke as
such, unless they see it duly labeled in the
'sfunny column" But if you are mo such
man, the veriest trife may set you of, and
cause you to quake helplessly with mirth.
You grin when you find that your friend is
described in the morning paper as having had
''houses," instead of ''honors," showared upon
him; or when, in his sonnet, tie ''viewless
train of poesy" masquerades as the "viewless
train of palsy" Yet were the case your own
there would be nothing diverting in it; for
nc matter how robust your sense of humor
may be, it will scarcely carry you far enough
to make you appreciate joke of that sort at
your own expense. If a goat or a dog
marches into church, a subdued litter runs
through the congregation either because OF
the incongruousness of such an episode, OF
because anything that breaks off long con
tinued train of thought Is welcome. Inter
course with those unconscious humorists
whose blunders and absurdites are treasure
trove to their acquaintance yields a double
sense of qualification, not only amusement
but a soothing consciousness of your own
superior mental qualities. But whatsoever
the provocation, if you are not in the mood
the jolliest quip falls fiat; for sorrow is more
easily compelled than mirth. We hear of
crocodile tears, but never of crocodile laugh
ter, though the genus is noted for fine teeth
You can, at pinch, weep with those who
weep; but to counterfeit enjoyment of their
old stories would be much more difficult
matter.
DIFFERING STANDARDS.
Each grade of society seems to have its
own standard OF humor The delicate fnesse
of polished wit, as exemplified by "The
School for Scandal" or 1.-THE Rivals, worth
lily staged and acted, is lost upon the disciple
Of McGinty.
1t can be irpag:asd that primitive mans
conception of jest must have been of the
same crude nature, and that the grimace Of
pain or the spectacle of a fellow stumbling
into ditch was needed to call forth his in
frequent guffaw. Hence, probably, the
growth of the practical Joke
We can mark the traces of such rough-and
tumble ideas of wit in the horse play of the
old novels and comedies The jests were
driven in with bludgeon. Cracked pates
and bleeding noses spoke more forcibly to the
groundlings than the swift thrust and parry
of dialogue; if one person tripped and tum
bled it was irresistibly droll, and when two
or three sprawled in a heap the mirth be
came boisterous Such simple method of
quadrupling humorous effects must have
beensa boon to the dramatist. The public OF
that time laughed because they felt like it,
after the manner of children; but today,
since we have stopped to ask ourselves why
we laugh, our laughter has naturally become
less loud and frequent. Nothing better illus
trates this change of standpoint than the
recent theory that Omar Khayyam's praises
of love and wine are really chants of relig
ious ecstasy. Regarding Don Qui1ote rather
as a pathetic than comic figure, we find it
hard to understand how the recital of his
misadventures Laughed SPANS chivalry
away"
Our ideas of what is laughworthy shift with
age "Verdant Green" with its jolly advent
ures of Bouncer and Gig Lamps" Charley
Larkins and
Pretty Patty Honeywood,
Fair and sweet and plump.
is side splitting at fifteen, but do not spoil a
cheerful memory by attempting it again al
thirty "Midshipman Easy" is another essen
TALLY young book. The middle aged man who
can still grow hilarious over ''PickwiclS' has
preserved childlikeness of heart that should
be envied, not despised. To careless youth
| the quarres, the love making, the merry
| poverty and queer makeshifts of Mimi and
| Rudolphe, Musette and Marcel, who figure in
| Murger's ssScenes de la Vie de Bohame," may
seem pretty enough, but at fifty we pause to
| question, "What of the decline of such ives?
| Perhaps Murger realized this when he "killed
Off several of his charming grisettes in the
| flower of their days. But while time has nc
chemical action upon the eternal charm OF
wit, nothing SO soon becomes musty and out
of date as humor.
| IN THE PILE WITH DOESTICKS.
| Last years humorist has often vanished as
utterly as last years snow flakes. Will the
drolling of Mark Twain and the delicious
absurdity of Bill Nye be swept away into
| that same rubbish heap where Doesticks and
John Phoenix and the rest lie buried?
We pay the tribute of silent and some
times bitter smile to the nimble clevernes;
of French wit, so utterly unlike the good ma
tured, dancing bear clumsiness of German
| humor. Who can imagine being stirred to up
roarious mrth by Gavarni's pictures? Thai
great portrait gallery of his, D'Apres Ma
ture, cuts almost too close to the quick Of
human life to be amusing. With whal
subtlety he manages to hint at something
| wicked and sinister amid the curves ant
dimples of his exquisitely pretty women
| With what profound, cynical insight int
human nature he has contrived to write {
whole history of character and circumstance
upon each face-the youth so good for moth
ing that his parents think of making an arts
of him; the dandin, with his foolish profile
the fatuously important workman who's
marriage with Picheux's daughter has beef
nterfered with ''by the government" thu
forlorn, frowsy headed creature, with hel
ragged broom over her shoulder-what evi
youth has led to this foul old age!-who ha
figure dams les ballets;;" the fishwife, will
arms akimbo; the shabby genteal bibliophil'
indulging in an intellectual ''orgy" at bool
stall; the two hays discussing their "brigands'
of husbands, and expressing the pious wisl
that the one might be hung for numbering tn
other; the father with his good, simple face
SO proudly escorting his daughter, who's
pretty, trivial features already bear the i'm
print of something that is not candor or pur
ity. Move do not laugh at these.-Nev
Orleans Times Democrat.
ONE KIND OF WOMAN'S WORK.
| How Young Women Are Examined 70
Places in Retail Music Stores.