Evening star., 1898-06-18
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member how they were introduced in the
camps. The fellows who sold songs sener-
ally visited camp during the evenings and
sang the songs over. The author of When
Johnnie Comes Marching Home Again
was a personal friend of mine, and I re-
member how he got his song introduced in
the army. A man who will write song
like When This Cruel War is Over of the
last war may come after awhile, but his
work Is very much needed now
X x n
American humor is very rapidly forging
to the front in England" said newspaper
man who recently returned to Washington
from London. The greatest proof of this
is that the Britishers are beginning to un-
derstand our idea Of humor, and to give 1t
the laugh it calls for Immediately and on
the spot without revolving it in their
minds for few hours and then exploding
over it in the middle of the night The
English people have always been aware
that there was something in American hu-
nor, but the humor of our people is SO
meaningfui that they have not, up to quite
recently, been able to penetrate it's signih-
canoe Now they are roaring over it.
There are now several American burlesque
ana extravaganza shows running with tre-
mendous prosperity in London. These
shows are jammed full of gags of an essen
tally American character-many of them
even purely local New York digs-and yet
| noticed that the Londoners caught the
ciferously. If the same shows had been
presented in London, say, ten years ago,
am positive they would have been dreary
failures. and not one of the American gags
would have got so much as a smile from
tie erstwhile stold Britishers. The English
comic papers are largely responsible for
this comparatively. new appreciation of
American humor on the part of English
men, They exchange with all of the Amer
lean comic publications and 'swipe' stuff
literally from them. without ever so much
as dreaming # giving the American humor-
lists credit The readers of these English
comic papers reading this American-clip-
ped stuff constantly, have gradually come
to understand it, but few of them know
that it is essentially American humor.
Most of them believe that the snappy stuff
tons from American humorists' writings
simply indicates a change in the style of
English humorous matter
''Non-believers in the doctrine of the
transmission of hereditary instincts are
brought to a standstill when they are con-
fronted with such an indisputable fact that
the finger-nail-b habit is in nine cases
out of ten. handed down to the children of
those addicted to it," said a Washington
physician. Il have for nearly ten years
watched this thing carefully. and in al
most every case where a parent. either
father or mother. has been a finger-nail-
bitter, | have found that the children have
at a very early age naturally fallen into
the same practice The chief fnger-nail-
chewers of the world are the French, and
it was recently stated, upon reliable au-
thortty. that nearly two-thirdS of French
school children are addicted to the habit
French specialists who have made a care
ful study of the matter maintain that the
finger biting habit Is sort of nervous
disease. and the French educational au-
thorities are about TO take steps to stop
the habit among French school children.
L haven't heard yet what they are going
to do about it, but | am certain that they
have big contract on their hands. Even
Tor grown people there is hardly any habit,
aside from the confirmed abuse of narcot-
les, more difficult to overcome than the
habit of biting the finger nails. 1t requires
a strong mental effort and constant vigi-
lance to do this for once a person has be-
come thoroughly addicted to the habit he
does 1t unconsciously, and is only reminded
that he is marring himself when he gets
one of his nails gnawed down to the quick
All manner of remedies have been advanced
for the cure of the finger-nail- biting habit
including the placing of injurious and bit
ter com positions on the ends of the fingers,
but none of these remedies amounts to
much
The only way to stop biting the finger
nails is TO stop, which is the only way to
stop drinking liquor, by the way The
Americans are next to the French in the
hnger-nail-biting habit. probably because
the Americans, as a whole are an exceed
lng!y nervous people A man who accom-
piishes his determination to knock Off Bit
ing his finger nails may, by incessant mani
curing, get them TO look fairly we'll within
year or so. but fnger-nail biting ii
long persisted in, ruins the shape of the
ends of the fingers, and the nails can never
be brought to look as well as those of the
persons who permit their nails to grow as
they were intended to grow