The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-03-23
A DELIGHTFUL HOUR.
" American Wit and Humor " Was
Rev. M. ]. Savage's Topic
At the Westminster Church Last Even
ing Boston's Most Eloquent Divine
Listened to with Pleasure.


The lecture last evening at the West
Minister Church on american Wit and
Humor," by Rev. Minot j. Savage, was
more than entertaining. In the subject
discussed and the manner OF treating 1t
Mr.. Savage's lecture was most delightfully."-
unlike the conventional pulpit or plat
form talks. The famous Boston preacher
Is thorough believer in wit and
humor, is witty himself and he
sonal friends, when he lectured about a
few of the Americans whose happy duty 1t
had been TO make others laugh.
First he spoke of wit itself and said that
1t was something which came with peo-
ples' best mental development, the
greater mans intellect the greater
his keen appreciation OF it; bar barians
are very solemn, idiots are pathetic. IL
is true that some ponderously
sensible people never smile, but
when one never sees anything TO smile
at there is very apt to be something lack
ing about his mental equipment.
Wit in its highest form is essentially
of the Imagination; it deals
with ideas rather than things. We lind 1t
in an allusion or reference TO differences
between things naturally alike, and TO
similarities in things naturally different.
Here is an examples: The words from
Shakespeare, "He was not for day but
for all time" have been made parody of
for the benefit OF persistent bore "He
was not for time but for all day."
Humor deals with incidents and situa-
kindly. 1t points out our foibles, but
its root is in sympathy and
il blossoms out in toleration.
There are a number OF stories of puns
being sent as official dispatches
where the meaning and joke were
both obvious. For instance ii is said that
Drake, after defeating the Spanish Ar
mada, sent back to England the one word
Cantharides," which means Spanish fly.
Irony may be playful, while sarcasm is
always bitter. Its name Is derived from n
Greek word which means to tear the
flesh.
American wit, like the nation, is an Off
shoot OF English, but it has had the greater
development of new soil. III is
OF the strange mixture in our porula-
tion. The Chinese, the Italians
Dutch and all the rest figure
in our laughter as well as in our politics.
The true Yankee wit consists in exagger-
alton TO make it fit the Yankee concep-
ion of the size Of his country. One said
bounded on the east by the primevai
chaos ON the north by the Aurora Borealis,
on the west by the setting sun and on the
south BY the day of judgment.
OF the American humorists them
selves there have been many,
but will confine myself to two of them,
Artenius Ward and Mark Twain. 1t is
the misfortune sometimes of a man
that he can't be taken seriously even
wi hen he intends TO be and say this of
Mark Twain because he is great deal
more than q humorist. His "mnocents
Abroad" with all the bumor
left out, Is a magnificent book of travel.
Tom Sawyer is the best boys book that ever
was written. Twain dedicated his first
book to John Smith because he
had heard that it was customary
for the person to whom book Is
dedicated to buy copy. II that rule
held in his case he expected to be struck
Dy a wave of opulence.
Charles +. Brown, or as he was known,
Artemus Ward, was born in Maine and
died in London when he was 80 years
old. He was certainly the prince of
all American wits of his class.
His comicalities were out of his
A year before his death Ward went to
nothing but ovations, and as a contributor
mono since Thackeray had got more into
the magazines than he. He died, loved i'm
two continents, the genial happy Artemus
Ward, humorist who was never sarcastic
who never uttered an unkind work.
II our life must be such race and
strain as 1t Is let US have the smiles with
il. There Is no crime nor insanity in
laughter; Ii will help to keep us young,
and we are better men and women because
of it.