Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-24
'sRea1 Fumor Is Vagrame--It Loves Every
thing That Is Good Worth While i'm Life
By JEROME X. JEROME
Author of die thoughts of die elbow"

pears to believe his hunor
is beyond the Comprehen-
sion-of the average Englshman, say. In some
respects he is right The whole thing depends upon
the viewpoint 1t has been said, believe, that " A
joke at johannesburg would be murder in Mayfair"
Likewise, what might be Bowery bon mot might
prove a serious matter if brought up before
London magistrate.
There are national Jokes just as there national
tragedies. In some respects they interchange
able; but it is matter of supererogation to attempt
to analyze humor sni generts because, just what
may be one mans meat may prove another mans
poison, what may be laughing matter in South
Africa might be considered desperate tragedy in
London.
Many jokes indeed fall in the category of the
stones that the boys threw at the frogs-good
fun for the throwers but possibly not so much
appreciated by the object Only, men have the
advantage of frogs, inasmuch as they throw the
stones Tor jokes back, with the jagged points
rearranged to suit the throwers' ideas of fun
Jokes depend for appreciation on opportunity
and environment as well personality. There
family jokes for instance-much thought of in their
own family but not so keenly appreciated outside
Also if | bump my against the edge of door
the experience is not bit funny to me, though it
might and probably would evoke entirely an oppo-
site feeling in others However, that would be in
the category OF exceptional or unexpected jokes
| simply cite these examples to show that jokes
really may descend to cruelty or ignorance. If
we anayze all the Jokes that are supposed to con-
tain the basic principles of humor likely to
find great majority based individual mis-
fortune and that SORT of joke is dangerously
cruelty, if not fight
No doubt the many derivatives the original
jokes marriage, DEATH love and debt q do not
pretend to set these down sequence) enjoyable
because all these things likely to happen to any
of u.s. and misery not only loves company but is
moved to joyous laughter when it is found in
others.
| was asked not long ago by an acquaintance for
my views the difference between English and
American humor | was willing but was puzzled
As far as | could see English and American hunor
interchangeable, if not the same thing My
acquaintance thought Englishmen slow to see
joke and were inclined to cling to old jokes as old
friends-rnade them classics in fact. | thought it
good trait rather than otherwise.
He cited London Punch poor old Punch =
example l did not feel called upon to defend
Punch" | have not always understood all of
"Punchs" jokes myself But l simply cited the
fact that Messrs. Du Maurier Artemus Ward and
other gentlemen well-known on both sides of the
Atlantic had contributed extensively to Punch"
He argued further that Englishmen were not only
slow to joke but often puzzled if not in
dignant at classes of American Jokes |
thought this possible, although | did not say So
However, the thing that principally puzzled him
was how old jokes lasted SO long in England and
still retained their freshness for Englishmen.
thought | several reasons; but he brought one
into prominence himself
BY natural sequence, maybe, we fitted from jokes
to journalism. He discussed contributions to the
press. 1t appeared he had secured from an Ameri-
can man of prominence article for his publication.
He wanted to know if | had any such contributions
in ri hitr1 had ouaj to