The Washington times., 1901-08-04
ARE WOMEN HUMOROUSp
Mr. Harry Pain Discusses His Doubts
and Fcars.

I and Fcars
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 devi:
MS due. This is not, intended as a re
hection on women, this mention of the
devil. II is simply, intended to express
Mr.. Pains frame of mind. Permeated
| therefore, with this determination to be
| just though the heavens fail, Mr.. Pain
says that it has ever been far from his
| thoughts TO say that women had no sense
of humor.
| Il have said" admits this just man.
that women had not, in the highess
| sense, humor, which is a very different
| thing. musical ear is not the same as
a talent for composition The ability to
| appreciate dinner is not the same as the
| ability to cook it. have never deniec
| that. women could appreciate fun wnen
| they met 1t. They are like men in that
respect, some can and some cannot There
! is no sex disability there
Mr. Pain declares that women have pro
duced no permanent literary humor. But
his ideal of justice hangs before him anG
ne hastens to add that in conversation
women supply the needs of the moment
IN humor better than men do.
Inc male mind, says Mr.. Pain.
~, but ii certainly moves more slowly.
The man thinks of the right thing to say
but he thinks of IL about thirty seconds
too late and by that time-well, the bus
has gone on. Women, at least in what
are called the upper classes. are much
more ready
Mr.: Pain goes on to say that mems re
taxation is in business. This comes as
a surprise in regard to the British upper
classes, which are commonly supposed1
TO despise business and all persons and
/ mi rtsl H.
ton of the shekels which a good bust
ness rakes in. Mr.. Pain not only knows
humor when he sees it, but he can give
a recipe for making it.
"A sense of humor'' says he lis prac-
tlcally the same thing as a sense of pro-
portion. If you have good sense of pro-
portion, an overstatement or an under
statement makes you smile. man
whose termagant wife fell out of a win
dow while shouting abuse at him down
on the street said, whsn told of her
DEATH
Don't makes me taught I've got a
cracked lip
That was grotesque understatement
"A case of a groteSQue oyerStatement is |
in the story of the American who com |
planned of finding tin tack in his hash. |
He was asked if he expected an ivory |
handled umbrella in a 15-cent dish
Mr. Pain has such keen sense of hu-
NOR that he likes this good old story. |
even in the form in which he tells it |
Even woman. if an American woman |
wherein the hash eater discovers a brass |
button in his food and is Indignantly ask |
cd II he expected full uniform. In his |
story the ivory-handled umbrella and the |
tack have no meaning, except that one
Is big and one is little. But never mind, |
Mr.. Pain doesn't have to tell his Ameri-
can 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 Cne-half their time reviling |
the other sex and the other half initiating
it.
when / think of unconscious humor |
am reminded of the old story of man
ordered fried sole. Immediately after |
ward came a man who also ordered a |
fried sole and added: And mindi If II |
isn't fresh | won't eat it The waiter
wearily went to the tube and shouted |
down to the kitchen:
Two fried soles, And hi the last one
as got to be fresh,"
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.
- lhe injured man, says the humorist. |
tore after. the bus, just succeeded in
catching up the tail of it. and pinched
the conductors leg. j 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 un-
mistakably creative sense of humor. 1t