The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-04

t1rely novel, don't you know! In the
way of outdoor life we have automo-
billing, yachting, driving and riding in
the park. During the hot part of the
day we wear the thinnest wrappers and
read novels by the electric fans, which
keep us perfectly cool. In the evening
after 5 O'Clock we see men galore.
Jack is perfectly delighted, or at least
has the grace to say he is. And as for
the girls and me, we are passing
beautiful time. OF course, under the
circumstances, Milly and Betty are
great bellies, and between you and me
it looks as if our summer in town
would bear far reaching results for
both of them!"
And now 1t is Mr.. Barry Pain who
says his say about women and humor
Mr.. Pain is something of a humorist
himself, and is supposed to know the
article when he sees it. He is willing
to give the deveil his due. This is not
intended as a reflection on women, this
mention of the devil. 1t is simply in
tended to express Mr.. Pains frame of
mind. Permeated, therefore, with the
determination to be just though the
heavens fall, Mr.. Pain says that it has
never been far from his thoughts to
say that women had no sense of HUI
NOR.
II have said" admits this just man,
that women had not in the highest
sense, humor, which is a very different
thing. A musical ear is not the same
as talent for composition. The abil-
ity to appreciate a dinner is not the
same as the ability to cook it. have
never denied that women could appre-
ciate fun when they met it. They are
like men in that respect; some can and
some cannot. There is no sex disabil-
ity there"
Mr.. Pain declares, says the New York
Sun, that women have produced no
permanent literary humor. But his
idea of justice hangs before him and he
hastens to add that in conversation
women supply the needs of the mo-
ment in humor better than men do.
THE male mind" says Mr. Pain,
moves perhaps more surely and cor
rectly, but it certainly moves more
slowly. The man thinks of the right
thing to say, but he thinks of it about
thirty seconds too late and by that
! time-well, the bus has gone on Wo-
men, at least in what is called the up
| per classes, are much more ready"
Mr.. Pain goes on to say that mems
relaxation is in business. This comes
as a surprise in regard to the British
| upper classes" which are commonly
supposed to despise business and all
persons and things pertaining thereto,
with the exception of the sheckels
which a good business rakes in. Mr..
Pain not only knows humor when he
sees it, but he can give recipe for
| making it.
"A sense of humor," says he, 'is
practically the same thing as a sense
of proportion. If you have good sense
| of proportion an overstatement or an
understatement makes you smile. A
man, whose termagant wife fell out of
a window while shouting abuse at him
down on the street, said, when told of
her death:
Don't make me laugh! I've got a
cracked lip
That was a grotesque understate-
ment. A case of a grotesque overs tate
ment is in the story of the American
who complained of finding a tin tack in
his hash. He was asked if he expected
an ivory-handled umbrella in a fifteen
cent dish"
Mr.. Pain has such a keen sense of
humor that he likes this good old story
even in the form in which he tells it.
Even a woman, if an American woman,
would prefer the much cleaverer vari-
alton wherein the hash eater discovers
brass button in his food and is indig-
nantly asked if he expected full uni
| form. In his story the ivory handled
umbrella and the tack have no mean
ing, except that one is big and one is
little. But never mind. Mr.. Pain does
not have to tell his American stories to
American women, so there is no harm
done.
Next hear Mr.. Pain on the subject of
unconscious humor, with two good sto-
ries, one of which is not altogether
| new.
Girls" says he, like men, women
dogs and everything else that breathes,
occasionally give us some unconscious
humor. One of the best instances of
this sort of humor is furnished by the
women who spend one-half their time
reviling the other sex and the other
half initiating it.
when 1 think of unconscious humor
I am reminded of the old story of a
man who went into a woebegone restau-
rant and ordered a. fried sole. Immedi-
ately afterward came a man who also
ordered a fried sole and added: And
mind If it isn't fresh l won't eat it,
The waiter YEARLY went to the tube
and shouted down to the Kitchen:
1.-TWO fried soles. And hi! the last
one as got to be fresh!
Then Mr. Pain tells of a man whose
appearance somehow did not please a
passing bus driver. The latter calmly
lowered his whip and knocked off the
mans hat, then whipped up his horses.
1.-THE injured man." says the humor
list, tore after the bus, just succeed
ed in catching up the tail of it and
pinched the conductors leg. 1 suppose
his idea was that the whole thing was
cast in one piece"
Mr.. Pain tells of two little girls in
whom he Unexpectedly discovered an
Enthusiastically creative sense of HUI
NOR. 1t was at the seashore, and the
little girls had thin black legs and faces
like undertakes. They had also a small
pail and a shovel OF the regular sea-
shore variety. When first observed by
the humorist they had their eyes on
fat old gentleman asleep on the sand
with his back against the wall. The
funereal little girls whispered together.
they solemly filled their pail and, still
solemnly went to the parade and empt-
led the sand down upon the old gentle
mans head. According to Mr.. Pain
the two little girls never smiled while
they were doing this and, having done
it, walked away with dignity. At the
next flight of steps they went down
upon the sand and looked along the
wall until they found a sleeping old
lady when they repeated the perform
ance. AS Mr.. Pain says, ''They empt-
led the sand with no jubilation, but in
tho same accurate and perfunctory
manner with which one drops a three
penny piece into the offertory bag"
kanaul satrfF -