The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-02-14
Copyright.
WHO CAN'T TAKE A JOKE.
How They Get Cnred-TheO One Who Won't
'JOin In"

Written for IHE HELENA I~NDErENDEsT.1
know several, stiff az rnmrods. And l
know what is the mattsr--they are con-
ceited, every one; or else they are selfish;
Or else their virtues have q twin fault.
Now, the only sure remedy that / kuowof
for conceit is ridicule. Ihe trouble with
the case is that it il not usually admin
lstered in homeopathic psllets Except at
home by some supernatural v WISE parent;
the conceited %youngstsr is liable to sud
denly get a good dose poured down his
self-consclousness, straight. BOYS call it.
! believe, 'takink the starch out of q fell
low"
! know that some boys say that they get
ridiculed for their very virtues. Well, III a
long acquaintance with boys, I have OBJ
served that a virtue frequently Is attended
by a twin fault. For instance: The boy
who is very particular about his immacu-
late clothes, generally llesitates about join
ing In the fun-that IL why he il jeered at
for d%andiness. / am perfectly certain about.
this. ] know a boy, handsome as a picture.
dressed by the best tailor in Boston. He
has a complexion of milk and roses. with a
er's linen lawn handkerchief so that there
is always a Whit of violets about him--yet
he never gets laughed at. There is fire in
his blue eyes, he leads the Saturday hare
and-hounds, and is the crack high kicker
and champion yeller Of the school. To be
sure the boys call him Baby" but that
isn't ridicule! It's only n little way they
have of showing their pride of him.
could pick out other ''virtues'' which
get a boy ridiculed, or make him unpopu-
lar: There is the Orderly boy.' with his
we'll kept books, his carefully arranged
collections" his games all in their spick-
and-span boxes-he doesn't lend his books.
mind Vnn' nOaanst rHrifa THAR mar and
scribble, and draw things in his books (for
him to ei b longingly over with swelling
hart when ne gets to be an old man), and
when he takes them up to his room to dis
play his treasures, they stan back at a re-
spectful distance while he opens cabinets
from home ut some other fellows house;
his Robinson Crusoe ism dog's-eared-bless
his stipgy little soul!
But when it's a case of pure %conceit. a
boy generally gets cured before he is 35.
say. With girls it is different. A con-
ceited girl generally becomes an unpopular,
overlooking woman. Business gradually
teaches a man the value Of companionable-
ness. And when a well-aimed arrow OF
wit hits him straight and square,, be pri-
vately owns to himself that his weak point
has presented a fair target. and has the
of it.
Let me tell you a little story of how Rob
ert Browning took a joke on himself. He
once received q letter addressed simply to
Robert Browning, Esq, Poet. England
Within that envelope were the follo wing
lines:
0 Robert B,
Can you not see .-@. - F
.o.. You are at times 1885,"
Too mixed for me?
/ Drop it! if L may make SO free.
The next year the sender met a friend
who had just returned from abroad. Said
the friend, ''You would nave been inter
ested if you had been in Venice with me
last year; for l saw Browning almost every
day. The sender suddenly remem-
bored her verse and asked if Brown
ing had ever mentioned receiving an
effusion. 20 Robert b.
Before she could 90 farther, her friend
recited the verse, saying: How did you
ever hear that? Browning received it from
America and used to go about repeating it
delightedly. He thought it such a relief
after the Browning eocieties."
T.. E. p. r.
Corvrirkf