The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-11-17
NATIONAL HUMOR.
Some Of the Merry Jests and Laugh
able Oddities Written and s.
Said By Irishmen.
SWIFT'S IRONlCAL SAYINGS,
Celtic Wit Particularly Free From
the Bitter Sting Found in That 4,
of Other People.

bA0 DAt1oI 0tAuS Ouuu !" 11aV =,
Of Other People.
The two words wit and humor have
been SO long misapplied and so much
misunderstood that few people can
properly place them without confound-
ing there true meaning, writes M. j
Murphy. Wit was originally general
name for all the intellectual powers and
meant the faculty which perceives,
knows, understands; it was gradually
narrowed in it's Specification to express
merely the resemblance between ideas;
and lastly, to note that resemblance
when it occasioned ludicrous surpsise.
1t marries ideas lying wide apart, by q
sudden jerk of the understanding, The
original meaning Of Humor wa emoisture,
a Specification it metaphorically retains,
for it is the very juice OF the mind, ooz-
ing from the brain, and enriching and
ferti'izipg wherever it falls. Wit exists
by antipathy; humor by sympathy. Wit
laughs at things; humor laughs with
them. Wit, bright, rapid and blasting
as forked lightning, flashes, strikes,
sometimes with deadly effect, and van
ishes in an Instant. Humor, aglow with
genial mirth, steals into the heart, soft
ems with good nature the ragged Unequal
tiles of existence, bathes lis subjects in
warming su shine that promotes more
tolerant views of life and firmly bridges
over the gulf that lies between the lofty
and the lowly, the humble and the great
Old DR.. Fuller's remark, that a negro is
''the image of God cut in ebony,'' is hu
morous; Horace Smiths invention of it,
is that the taskmaster is sthe imageof
the devil cat in ivory" is witty. Wit
can co exist with fierce malignant pas
sions; but humor, demands good feeling
and fellow.feeling, feeling not merely
for what is above US but what is around
and beneath us. When wit and humor
are commingled, the result is a genial
sharpness, dealing with it's object some
what as old Izaak Walton dealt with the
frog he used to bait--running the hook
neatly through his mouth and out at his
gills and in SO doing, ''using him as
though he loved him." :.
| Wit has been q most potent factor in
shaping the destines of governments at
times,-I mean that vitriolic and biting
species of wit known as Satire In this
form we find Wit blazing in the van OF
revolutionary movements attacking and
turning into ridicule corrupted and rot
ten governments, unmasking and bring
ing into contempt the hypocrite and the
traitor. The tyrant who faced death on
u hundred fields covers before and
breads the stinging dart Of the satirist.
No man respects or fears an object
which has been brought into redicule
and contempt, and oppression passes
from throne of terror to grovel in des-
! pisedness, laughed at while detested.
No army can protect it then; and walls
which have remained impenetrable to
cannon, have fallen before shout of de-
| risive laughter or hiss of contempt.
Satirical compositions floating about
among q people have more than once
produced revolution. They are sown
as dragons teeth, they spring up as
armed men. The author OF "Lillibulle-
ro' boasted that he rbymed King James
| II out of his dominion. England under
Charles III was governed pretty equity
by roues and wit snarpers. A joke haz
arded by royal lips on a regal object has
sometimes plunged Kingdoms into war;
for dull monarchs generally make their
repartee through the caunon's mouth.
The biting jests of Frederick the Great
on Empress Elizabeth and Madame de
Pompadour we're instrumental in bring
ing down upon his dominions the armies
OF Russia and France.
Swift's ironicsl sayings were Of this lat
ter class Of wit. Unsurpassible in style,
it was cruel to excess and had but little
| in it that was truly Irish. A contem-
porary and countryman, Dean Smedley,
said that he was 'alvays in jest, but
most 80 in prayer" this, however, is an
exaggeration, as Swift was generally in
grim earnest. The impressive and mat
ter Of fact way in which Swift, using the
deadliest Of weapons, ridicule, reformed
tho abuses ofhis time, deceived good
Imany. He never moved q muscle and
his wit shown BY contrast with bis moody
exterior as lightning fash llumines g
gloomy sky.
The irish people have = world wide
celebrity Tor vit and humor, and Justly
%. With them il Is. of no mushroom
| growth, g may be seen by thor tollksllore