The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-08-08

4 Would YOU know When you got
4 there, should you be directed in the
right way
/ Possibly your notion of fun is SO
TAT variance with that of other folks
that go where you Will there is no
fun for you
+ You frequently hear persons saying
| that this, that or the other Is awfully
funny when they are anything but
funny from your point of view. And
yet they may be really funny to
some-they must be for they cause
them to laugh.
In order to be funny thing must
amuse you. tickle you. and cause YOU
4 to laugh.
Humor is different.
The very best humor Is that which.
amuses, entertains and eNcites agree,
able thoughts. and it consists mainly.
of truth
/ A false statement may be funny,
and SO may rude or coarse remark,
but these play no part in humor
The true humorist deals with facts
and things that are true, but having
the faculty of seeing them little diff
| ferently from the way they appear to
! you his presentation of them not only
amuses, but entertains you. and some
times edifes you.
Humor is, therefore, more or less
serious as compared with fun, and
much meatier, SO to speak, for there
is always something in it, or to it;
while fun is scarcely more than a
passing breath, agreeable for the mo-
ment, but soon forgotten
Fun is extravaganza While humor
is true comedy When blended they.
constitute hurlesque or caricature To
be effective these must have basis
of truth, the salient parts of which
are just sufficiently exaggerated to-
emphasize and to give them pronli-
hence
To be successful caricaturist one
must be able to comprehend and to
appreciate the truth as it exists in the
subject he has in hand. besides being
able to so treat it as to exaggerate
its more prominent features or
phrases.
Many of you can recall Nast's CART
catures of Tweed. Greeley, Schurz
Ben Butler and other notab1es, any
one Of whom could be9recognized AT a
glance, because they Were true por-
traits with only certain features or
characteristics slightly exaggerated.
Caricature is, therefore. a method OF
criticism, and is often far more effect
i've than written or spoken criticisms:
It may annuse. and it usually does,
but it is not offensive like extravagant
burlesque.
We laugh at fool sayings and do
ings, and yet have neither pity nor
| respect for the fool behind them.
Not SO with the humorist.
AS a rule humorists are the most
iovable fellows, being clean and
| wholesome and well worth knowing
| They must be all of these else they
could not fill the bill
In the first place they must have
good sense, and a lot of it, in order
| that they may perceive the truth and
| so appreciate it that they can present
| its unusual phases, or rather it's
phases not usually noticed, and to
draw conclusions different from those
deducted by the application of the
logic of the day
some OF the results may seem quite
ridiculous at the time, and yet SO
clever and pleasing that you can't help
laughing-maybet laugh until you cry
But the humorist rarely INDUCES in
funny business. and then only for the
purpose of contrasting the true with
the false, the sensible with the silly.
so that he is in no sense a funny fell
low, and far, very far away from the
clown or the hurlesquc actor
AND almost without exception the
kumorist is serious and inclined to
be sedate He is always sensitive and
sometimes painfully so TO himself and
distressingly so to others-to some
others, for. he IS sure to have around
him few chosen spirits who are
neither annoyed by him nor give an
noyance. Those who don't under
stand him may think he is cranky or
gronchy, but he isn't, only tenderly
sensitive.
The wonder is there are not more
humorists in the world, for who
wouldn't want to be able to see the
humorous side of life rather than the
serious side2
And yet we find more people look