The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-02
some Jnnanese Jokes.


The japanese haye keen sense Of hu-
NOR. and their literature abounds in wit
ty sayings and funny stories, says the New
York Sun. TheYdalSo appreciate the bet
ter class or jokes published in other couu-
tries, and many bright paragraph ana
laughter-provoking dialogue is translated
from The American press and reprinted in
the native papers. Japanese jokes are ar
tistic, subtle and to be enjoyed thorough
ly must be understood in the original. A
foreigner examining sthe Japanese Ian
guage and noting its peculiar construc-
ton and idioms, might think it a rather
laborlous matter Ito joke intellgently in
that tongue. For instance, where we
ask, How is your mother?' the polite ia
panese would PROFOUND query, which, on
being literally rendered into English, runs
as follows: Your mother as for honor
ably well being is?" Where we say,
PLEASE speak louder" he would say, in
effect More big voice by-means-of deign-
ing to speak condescend;" and where we
might observe. We shall have thunder
Storm" his remarks, against literally in
terpreted, would be to this effect: 'eThun-
der emitting sound storm to appears like
ly to become being is And yet the rar-
est kind of humor and fun are easily and
delicately expressed by him.
A good example of japanese humor is
the story of two men who were stone
deaf, and who, meeting each other one
morning, INDUCED in the following dia-
logue:
First Deaf Manhood morning Are you
going to buy sake Something to drink?
Second Deaf Mani am going to buy
sake.
First Deaf Man-Oh, excuse me; 1
thought you were going to buy sake
Neither had heard or understood a sylla-
bic of what the other was saying. Another
story, in which the national drink figures,
runs as follows 1t may be explained that
sake is liked best when made hot:
A topper, feeling "headachy' on the day
after spree, had fallen asleep with a
towel wrapped around his head Next he
dreamed that he had found a cask of sake,
which caused him so much joy that he
| licked his chops before tasting it. How de-
| licious!' he exclaimed. 1T would be the
proper thing to report the find at police
| headquarters but a windfall like this sake
no! no! 1 cannot let it escape me. Well!
| shall I take a glass? No. there will be
| nothing lost by waiting until l warm it. "
He was just going to set it to warm, when
| the midday gun awakened him with start
whereupon ne ruefully exclaimed: oh
what pity it was / did not make haste to
drink it cold"
The story of an illiterate dog is told
plaintively by one who was bitten:
you told me that when a dog barked al
one he would leave off doing so if one
wrote tiger on the palm of ones hand
and kept ones fist clenched. Well, have
had a rough time of it for listening tC
you"
Indeed. How so?"
"A European dog began barking and fly
ing at me as 1 was coming home late las
night. So I stuck my clenched fist out to
ward him, and just look how 1 got bit
| ten
"Oh Then probably it was a dog who
had not yet learned japanese writing"
In 1.-THE Pursuit of Fashion we obtair
a glimpse of the Japanese satirist. Tive
young men having come across each 9th
er in front of a haberdasher's shop, one o
them waved his hand hurriedly and crieC
out:
Il have much to say to you, but as urg
ent business calls me home at present,
must put off the conversation for few
days when 1 will come and see you a
your house"
The other, astonished at his friend
strange excitement, asked him what thi
urgent business might be; whether h
meant to say, for instance, that any of hi
family had been taken i'll.
"Oh, no." replied the first young man
with laugh; II have just been getting a
this shop a kind of kerchief which m!
wife commissioned me TO buy for her. TIL
reason why said / couldn't stop and tall
to you now is that it would be an awfu
thing for her to fall behind the fashion
while l was lettering on the way
The story of the smells and jingles i
one that has been enjoyed by many gener
atoms of japanese. 1t is told as follows
An old fellow in Yedo named Kichibe
kept an eel shop, where he served up eel
smoking hot to his customers. Kisaburc
his neighbor, wishing to save money, use
to sit and eat his boiled rice next to tn
eel merchants door and regale himsel
with the smell of the broiled cells. Tn
merchant, finding this out, presents a bill
for smelling the cells. Kisaburo not t
be outwitted, brings out his cash box an
jingles il, saying
you have charged me for the smell o
your cells and l have paid you with tn
sound of my money; we are now square
A somewhat similar story may be foun
in Rabelais, third book, thirty-sevent
J chapter; but the Japanese is undoubtedl
the older version.