The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-07-06
A PLEA FOR SERIOUSNESS.
Joke and Ridicule In Public and Private Life
Which Need to be Condemned.
Atlantic Monthly.1

Most fun, at the present day, does not
grow from healthy root nor need
healthy appetite; it creates dyspeptic
demand for coarse spice, which is met
by an unfailing supply in the fippancy
of our public speakers and the scurrility
Of the press. This brings me back to
my starting point. The counsel for
humor deplores the dismal seriousness
of the day, but its dismal jocosity is far
more deplorable. Everybody feels
bound to make a joke of everything,
and thinks that when one has been
made nothing more can be asked; in ar
gument, he who raises a laugh at his
opponent has won the day; shrug or
wink is answer enough to the most
vital questions. Mr.. II. NJ. Stanley's
jests on the fate Of the rear column
mark-so let US hope-the extreme to
Which the practice can be pushed as re-
CARDS humanity; Senator ingalls, and
Governor Ingersoll carry their ridicule
into moral and spiritual regions.
Now, how much better, happier,
wiser, or even merrier is any one for all
this? Do ribaldry and blasphemy raise
the spirits of the hearers? Does the
column of newspaper facetiae add to the
average daily cheerfulness? Do the
funny books on railway stalls lift the
burden and neat OF the day, or warm
the cookies of the heart against its chill?
If people take pleasure in exchanging
such pleasantries among themselves,
we'll and good, but to see them in print
recalls Macauley's outburst: "a wise
man might talk folly like this before
his freside, but that any human being,
having made such joke, should write
it down, copy it out, transmit it to the
printer. correct the proof, and send it
forth to the world, is enough to make
us ashamed of our species"
If the common disposition to take a
humorous view, as it is complacently
termed. has not upon the whole made
US jollier, let US ask what it has done.
1t has brought in slang which is de-
praving speech, and chaff, which is
driving out conversation in the inces-
SAINT struggle to the amusing, it has fos-
tered exaggeration to the damage OF
trutnfulness, cyuicism at the expense
CT kindliness, mockery to the sacrifice
of veneration. I feel the extent Of the
mischief at this moment, when would
urge my plea for seriousness. The basis
of appreciation Of the heroic and pa
thetic has been sapped in this genera
ton; they have made the step from the
sublime to the ridiculous once for all,
apd taken their stand on the latter;
there seems to be nothing to appeal to.
Virtue, honor, public fidelity and puri-
ty, commercial probity, the dignity of
office, the sanctity of home have be-
come subjects of jest; men and women
who uphold them are called fogies, or,
by a favorite locution Of the day,
are said to take themselves too BE-
siously.
Self-imporrance is ludricrous, no
doubt, but I have not observed that it
is wanting in people who take them
selves lightly; the attitude appears to
me unchanged, but it rests on less
solid qualities. The absence Of Sc
riousness is seen in our country people
to-day in the evasion of obligation ; we
give our children no training, but leave
them to their own devices, and 'sguess
they'll turn out all right; We neglect
our duties as citizens, and place them
in the hands of men notoriously unfit
for posts of trust, because "the great
American nation can take care or it.
SELF; we forbear to raise voice against
practices in public and social life
which we privately condemn, for "our
mission is not to be reformers." We
are 10th to do our own thinking hence
We are overrun by host Of little books,
native and foreign, witty and graceful
as you please, to tell US how little there
is in the big books on grave subjects
which a few people still write, but no
body reads. In poetry, fugitive pieces
and GERS de societe are the order Of the |
day; in fiction, the short story is oust-
ing the novel.