The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1905-12-01
The Springs of American HumOr.

Abe Springs OF American Humor.
Professional joke makers must sure
ly consider their business oyerdOne In
America, and In this view they have
the support of ]. A. Macy, an editor
of humor, who writes on the origin
and progress of jokes i'll the Atlantic
Monthly. Mr.. Macy throws some light
upon the sources from which come the
jokes which appear with suspicious
regularity in the newspapers and peri
Odicals of the day. He says that we
are nation of humorists, but he also
says that "jokes rise ready made out
of life" Doubtless the tendency to see
joke in every situation is unusually
strong in Americans and if the humor
is not obvious Imagination puts in a
twist to bring about the desired result,
and so a new joke is sent on its
travels.
1t is with a joke as it is with a lie
no vim is lost by passing it around.
Mr.. Macy says that the majority OF
jokes appearing in print as brand new
are seen by the expert eye to be old
friends in a new setting and not few
of them have been on duty since the
food. About hundred subjects are
Cited as the basis for nearly all the
humor which appears in the current
Joke. columns, and certainly the whole
of life Is not included in the exhibit.
A few examples taken at random from
the list will serve to show that the
''jokesmiths" have a very limited stock
in. trade as compared with the multi
tude of subjects which have given rise
to imperishable humor. Jokes on the
old maid, the grass widow, the poet,
the bachelor, the sausage, the boarding
house, and so on, are SO familiar to all
readers that any smiles they may
chance to bring out are far from COM
plimentary to the joke makers.
Some jokes are too good to die. and
1t is mark of genius in caterer to
the taste of the time to revive them in
form that has the hue of modern
life in it. In this way witty sayings
are attributed to Lincoln or Web
ster or Henry Ward Beecher Which
they in their day laughed at and per-
haps quoted as flashes Of wit current
on the lips of their forefathers. One
reason for the revival of jokes in each
generation is that clever minds seize
upon them in real situations, and to
remember a bright retort at the proper
time is the next best thing to original
ing one, for it is true in humor as in
many other things that about every
thing worth doing has already been
done. One country editor blessed with
the gift Of humor spread it over his
pages literally while he was fresh at
the work. Having created an appetite
among his readers which made the
burden of feeding it onerous, he dug
up from old prints an inexhaustible
supply which he confessed was equal
to his own, and as the readers didn't
know the difference he kept up the
reputation of his paper for wit long
after it was a bore to him personally.
The American propensity for joking
is doubtless an Inheritance from the
pioneers to whom humor was god
send. Life was hard and, as they must
have viewed 1t, almost hopeless 1t
was gift when man had the sense
of the ludicrous strong in him and
could light up the gloom around him
with bit of homely philosophy spiced
with humor In some situations the
remark, Things are not so bad but
they might be worse" becomes humor
by the very audacity Of the thought.
Often the sbuilders of the nation had
nothing In sight worth living for but
trouble, and no doubt they laughed
heartily. even If grimly, over every fall
they took out of fate.