The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-10-31
THINGS TO LAUGH AT.
PROF. LANE ON THE HISTORY OF
LAUGHING.

at the Young Mems Christian Asso-
citation Gymnasium Hall Last Night.
The Ages OF Laughter and Its Char
ecteristics.
Prof Charles Lanes lecture on the His
tory and Analysis of Laughter" at the
Dung Mems Christian Association gym
nasium hall last night was we'll attended in
spite Of the fact that Alexander Salvini
drew large crowd at the theater. 1t was
an Intelligent audience that greeted Prof.
Lane and one fully able TO appreciate the
many good points of his lecture. The lee
turer was briefly introduced by s. B.
Adams, Esq
Prot. Lane labored under the disadvau-
tage Of severe cold aud hoarseness. which
handicapped him greatly il the character
of his lecture. SO successful were his efforts
| to interest aud entertain his audience, how
ever, that il is safe 10 say no audience ever
left lecture room better satisfied with the
lecturer and themselves. They enjoyed &
solid hour and a half of logic, wit and
humor.
GOOD STORY TELLER.
As a narrator Of good story Prof Lane
is unequaled He begun his lecture with the
old quotation:
81 he music that can deepest reach
And cure all Ills is cordial speech
relaxation, he said, is necessary to all
minds, and he instanced the apparently ri
dIculous manner in which many great men
had sought to relieve their minds, especially
! Cardinal MaZarin, who was caught by
courtier leaping over chairs. The courtier
was worthy of his calling, however, and
made wager with the cardinal that he
could outjump HIM, which he wisely lost.
Prof. Lane gave the history of the devel-
opment of humor Brutes, he said, are
devoid Of humor, and savages only have
the sense slightly developed. The first
humor of which there is any record is that
| of the Bacchanalian age. which sprung
from wine, the lowest class Of wit.
THE AGES OF LAUGHTER.
The next was the burlesque age from SIS
B. G. to 450 A. D. This developed three
well-known forms of comedy, viz: carica-
ture, criticism and mannerisms. There
was decline of humor during the time of
the empire coincident TO the decline of in
tellect
Tbs next age of humor was the bunch
back age OF the barbarians, when every
chieftain considered hunchbac& as the
most amusing object he could
possess. This was succeeded
by the idiot age, when idiots were in great
demand as objects Of amusement. The
clown age came next during the middle
ages, when real wit began to develop, the
fool in cap and bells being often not so
great fool as he seemed. This was sue,
ceeded by the incorporating age, from 1850
to 1900, when humOr took a fantastic turn
and adopted all sorts of costumes.
The dinner-table age prevailed in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when
POPULARITY was encouraged with wine and
good things. Clabs originated in that age
Slang, also, Is one of our inheritances from
the dinner table age.
The book age succeeded the club
age and lasted until the middle of the
present century. Wits and humorists be-
gan to put their humor in books and humor
was boiled down and bottled no for the
benefit OF the reading public. Addison.
Goldsmith, Steele and Hawthorne were ex-
amples of the bright, aerial humor of this
age. Don Quxote of the grotesque and
Swift's satires Of the satire humor of the
age.
THE NEWSPAPER AGE.
Prof Lane said the age of humor of to-
day is the newspaper age. Remnants of all
the previous ages of humOr have come
down to us, but the funny newspaper man
is supreme.
Prof Lane then proceeded TO the analysis
of laughter. Interpreting each feature of
wit and humor with some illustrative
anecdote His jokes are inimitable. He
not only relates them, but acts them as
well, to the delight of his audience. He said it
was an opinion expressed by an old philoso-
pher that an outburst of humor was pro-
duced by the gain of some fsncied supe-
riority. He disputed this, so far as it
implied dsrision or contempt at the mishap
of another. Laughter, he said, is most
often produced by an incongruity of cir
cumstances. He related the story of an IN
cident that occurred at prayer meeting in
town IN Georgia. where a good OLD
brother called upon a younger brother
to raise the old familiar hymn, 81 love to
steal awhile away from every numbering
care The young brothers voice was out
of tune. He started off II love to steal"
then STOPPED short and started Off again, II
love to steal He missed it and started
off again with the same result. He had be-
gun the fourth time, when the old brother
exclaimed, seeing the brothers perplexity,
let us pray"
jokes ON THE PREACHERS.
Prof. Lane related several Jokes of this
kind on the preachers He said there is no
ingredient of contempt in this class Of
laughter.
ut is our vanity and self-conceit that
makes us SO sore and irritable he said.
THE would-be wit, however, is often the
terror Of society" The Jokes that Prof
Lane told would Ill column. One of the
best was upon the old Scotch professor who
was very fond Of the ladies. Being called
off suddenly one day he wrote upon a
bulletin board, III cannot meet my classes, "
aud signed his name. The Smart Aleck Of
! the class came along and rubbed out the
letter &C" in classes, making the professors
sentence read, 81 cannot meet my lasses. "
! Everybody was tittering when the professor
returned as suddenly as he left. and. discov-
ering the alteration, simply rubbed out the
letter a., making the sentence read, 81
| cannot meet my asses" and turned the
| joke upon the young men.
A SCOTCH JOKE.
Another Scotch joke was that OF che old
| Highland preacher who, like the rest of his
class, always flung il the pronoun with the
noun for good measure, as, for Instance,
| John he" did 80 and So. The old preacher
announced as his text, "The devil goeth
about like roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour, and before beginning his SER
mon stated the three heads of
| his text to be as follows: "Why
the devil he was going about. who the
devil he was seeking and what the devil he
would devour.n
! Prof Lane said that joke may consist of
| the displacement or misuse of letter or
a word, an ambiguity, an exaggeretion OF "A
/ hundred other things. or al the subjects
| for Jokes. big feet. doctors killing their pa
! tients and mothers-in-law, he said, came in
! for the biggest share. He got off several
/ himself on the mothers-in-lew that brought
! down the house.