Arizona republican., 1898-09-23
HOLDING HUMOR DOWN.
"There is no humor in heaven"

There is no humOr in heaven"
 Mark Twain.
 Indigestion CT insomnia must have caused Mark Twain to write the above sentence No mortal man who hopes to walk the yellow pavements of para disc could sit down in a good humor and take such a dismal view of the hereafter Mark Twain, of all men, would be out of place in such a dismal abode. He either did not mean what he said, CT else he is dead wrong. Web ster defines humor: "Facetiousness; meTriment; a kind of wit flowing from the temper or disposition of the per- son."
 Of course, Mark was in a measure correct, but he made his statement too positive when he said that there was mo humor" in heaven There must be some merriment among the angels, but, of course, it may not be of an earthly kind. One would scarcely ex- pect to find a first class earthly farce comedy running in celestial theater, nor would they expect to find the com- ic papers or coon songs in the book stores, but some of the angels at least must have good dispositions and sweet tempers along with enough wit to make them occasionally humorous There is an idea prevalent among good many people that the culinary department Of paradise is not the best, from an earthly standpoint, and that the average meal of the ordinary angel in good circumstances consists Of grasshoppeTs and milk. It may be that Mark is a high liver, and fails to see how any one, even an angel, could be humorous on such monoto- nous and indigestible diet. At / any rate, he must have had some reason fo- making such an absurd statement; but whatever his reason, he is wrong.
 What doleful place heaven would be if the angels went about with faces like undertakers, and did nothing but sing sacred songs as they fitted about among the wet clouds. Why, it's all bosh about there not being any humor in heaven. Of course the angels are happy; of course they are merry They wouldn't be angels if they didn't have good dispositions and sweet tempers, and in spite of Marks positive state nnent they must in their spare mo- ments be humorous. What right has a man like Mark Twain, who has given Ito the world more double-distilled hu- nor than any living mortal, what right mas he to discourage the poor, sad mor- tals of this world who are SO busy hustling after a living that they have not time to be humorous, with such dismal prospects Of the place that we all. even newspaper reporters, hope to spend some time in?
 Of course, Mark doesn't know posi- lively anything more about what we xrri1J i,, 1n o1- and he had no right to make a positive assertion about the humor or lack of humor in heaven. If he had only said that he thought there was no humor in heaven, people would have dismissed the statement as only silly thought and kept on trying to get there just the same. Some ignorant or thought less person might think that Mark had an inside tip, so emphatic did he make his assertion. But one thing is cer- tain, and that is that he hasn't If he prefers to look forward to heaven as a place without humof, and wants to take up a permanent residence in any such place, let him stand as the one forlorn man in the. world with such dismal expectations. Let those Of us whose lives are made brighter and hap pier every day by the thousands of humorous little things we see and hear continue to look forward to heaven as even a brighter and more humorous place than this poor world. Let US at least expect to find the angels q jolly, congenial lot, fuller of truer and 1 brighter humor than the comic week l lies, or even the witty and humorous Mark himself