The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-19

Is genuine, soma, old TeutOniC pluck.
NO section of our country has or has
ever had monopoly of courage The
history of the United States and the
histories of the component States
stand as witnesses that in every great
crisis brave men have been found to
lead and equally brave men to follow
The results of the Civil War were
more than the emancipation of slaves
and the passing of secession A great
er result than either was the embat-
tied demonstration of American yalor
The bond that is drawing North and
South closer ana closer together is the
memory that both have added lustre
to American annals; and every patriot
grave, whether it covers the blue or
the gray is becoming a challenge alike
to common pride and a common
emulation.
Another quality that distinguishes
the average American is his sense Of
humor. In the annual output of hu-
NOR as well as in the uniformity of it's
distribution, America bears the palm.
THE Americans says Mr.. Bryce in
his American Commonwealth" i" ARE
as conspicuously the purveyors of hu-
NOR to the nineteenth century as the
French were the purveyors of wit to
the eighteenth century. Nor is this
sense of the ludicrous side of things
cODIlneu 10 d lew DIlllldIlL NIlleIS. IL
is diffused among the whole people; i
colors their ordinary life, and gives to
their talk that distinctively new flavor
which a European palate enjoys
Mr.. Bryce notes also the perfect
Willingness Of the American to maxi
and to take joke at his own expense,
characteristic commemorated in
Kipling's lines on THE American:
He is the Jester and the Jest
\ l. IL . V.,,lf
Nowhere else is the joke a nationa!
institution as it is in America. No
where else are joke books sold on the
train along with cigars and chewing
gum. An interesting essay might be
written on THE Joke as a Factor in
American Oratory." From Patricl;
Henry to Zeb Vance the men who
have spoken directly to the heart Ct
the people have been the men who
had a keen sense Of the ludicrous aud
Wita knew how TO turn this gift to ef-
fective use. There has never been a
time in American literature since the
days OF Benjamin Franklin when we
did not have one or more humorist of
national repute; and Rip Van Wrinkle,
n creation of pure humor, remains still
the best known and the best loved
character in American fiction.
That the American has a keene1
sense of humor than the foreigner
might be easily proved by the number
of international anecdotes in which
the point of the jest lies in the fact
that the foreigner doesn't know that a
joke is being perDetrated upon him.
have in my possession one Of Mark
TWain'S stories edited by learned
German, DR.. Gustav Kruger, for use III
the German gymnaSla. DR.. Kruger
presented me with a copy of his edi-
! aYlyi no al
hoped / would find his foonotes cor
rect since Mark Twain himself had
looked over the proofsheets DIR.
Kruger's footnotes were remarkable
correct, with one exception. Mark
Twain says of a certain character in
the story that he put on his low
quartered shoes; Whereupon d..
Kruger comments as follows II take
the liberty of saying that loW-quar-
tered shoes must be a misprint l can
find the word i'm no dictionary ana
l conclude that what the author really
wrote was 'loW-Water' shoes. The
story takes place along the banks or
the Mississippi, and | find that this
river often oVerfloWS its banks, pro-
ducing what is known as 'high-Water.'
The shoes that the natives wear dur
ing high water seasons would very
naturally be called 'high-Water' shoes,
while the shoes that they wear during
low water seasons would, OF course,
be called 1ow-Water' shoes"
We can imagine Mark Twain 3
American delight over that explana-
ton. But would a French, German. or
English author have allowed such a
note to pass unchalenged? Would not
their desire to have their words prop
erly understood have mastered the
temptation to indulge their sense of
quiet fun at the commentators eX-
penSe?
Our humor is only in part an in
heritance The American has so de-
veloped a meager legacy as to make it
peculiarly his own. Indeed, the Amer
lean is sometimes unconsciously nu-
morous Thus DIR. Whitney, the learned
editor of the Century Dictionary, after
defining the word question" proceeds
to define certain phrases in which
question" occurs, such as "to beg
the question" "to call in question, -
ito pop the question" After "to pop
the question" DR.. Whitney'S only sug-
gestion is "see pop"
What is it in our history that has
stimulated the development of our
latent faculties of humor so as TO
make these United States headquar-
ters, the world over, for honest and
contagious laughter? Answers to this
question have been many and varied.
The reason seems to lie in the num-
berless contrasts and incOngruities af-
forded by the rapidly shifting pano-
rama of an ever expanding democracy.
Our vast extent of territory with it's
different manners and dialects, the di-
vergences of party and denomination.
the presence of the Indian and the
Negro. the role of the public speaker,
the close contact of rural and urban
pOnuIatiOnS the familiar intermingling
in social and civic life of the foreigner
and the native, of rich and poor, OF
learned and unlearned, all these gave
innumerable opportunities for the dis
cipline of the latent sense of humor
that the American brought with him
from the Old World.
American humor is at the core
sound and wholesome. 1t is not irrev-
erent, nor is it prevailingly caustic. 1t
broadly and intensely human. 1t IS
sensible, recreative, and stimulating.
Its favorite targets are folly, morose-