The Irish standard., 1917-02-10

1
ing heart of a nation. Surely such
a gift is divine; verify humor is gen.
ius and more than genius; for with
out it's saving salt the Irish must
have sunk into the apathy and despair
of the Egyptian felaheen.
Irish humor has passed into a pro-
! verb; it is everywhere the Irish are;
in the ditch, in the mill, on the house
top, Tightening labor's load; in the
mart and exchanges prodding usury
and smoothing a bargain; on the
march cheering the weary; on the
picket line chatting the foeman; the
line of battle charging into hell and
death with a joke; but it blossoms
best on native soil.
Irish humor is peculiar; it has
strange currents of sadness running
through it, No nation can suffer harsh
oppression, endure fierce injustice,
wage centuries of war, starve amid
plenty, and live on in a blaze of re-
ligious strife, without showing the
scars; and the sears of seven hundred
years are carried under the veil of
Irish humor
Take it by and large, the humor
of Ireland is good natured, laughable,
philosophic, and seldom waspish; but,
the Irish have knack, a happy fac
ulty, of fiinging Il pungent phrase, or
a name of opprobrium, that will stick
to man through the centuries as
tenaciously as burr to fleece. The
way an Irish peasant says thing
is often as humorous as what he says.
The shake of the head, the cock of
the eye, the gesture of finger, or the
curl of the lip, is often as effective
as the quaint quip or turn of his
words, giving them, as they do, shad-
ings Of meaning as expressive and
amusing as the changes Of feature and
expression given to the actors face
by the stick of grease paint.
Irish humor pcrmeates all her let.
tiers; and few Irish authors in the
domain of imaginative literature have
attained fame who have not displayed
a distinctly humorous vein. John
Boyle O'Reilly was the exception to
the rule; all his work was serious;
he was deadly in earnest all the time;
the sweet, tender, gentle humor OF
his private life never crept into his
work; there were so many evils to
eradicate, SO many wrongs to right
that he had no time for humor.
Ref0rmers may have humor; proph.
cts never have.
Run over the names Of Irishmen in
literature and you will recognize the
men who have done much to brighten
humanity: If we took satiric Swift,
rollicking Dick Steele of the Specta-
tor, gentle Lawrence Sterne, unctuous
Sam Lover, dashing Charles Lever,
roaring Carleton, biIulous DR.. Maginn,
polished Tom Moore. quaint Father
Prout, brilliant Gerald Griffin and -er.
Tatic Mangan and those greatest OF
dramatists since Shakespeare, Gold.
smith and Sheridan, out of English
literature, there would be a serious
hiatus made in the gayety of the ma
ton. There are some of the great
names of Irish humor, and the hosts
of minor worthless, poets and satirists,
who have set their world laughing
are too numerous to mention. And
out and beyond this recorded humor,
these rays of sunshine imprisoned in
type, Is the unrecOrded humor of the
people, the unconscious and bubbling
springs that are in Irish hearts; hui
NOR that is everywhere. as green and
fresh and refreshing as the trefoil of
the soil and as widespread and peren-
NAL.
In a land where persecution has
made religion the grand passion of a
nation and where such evil has stim-
ulated, not frozen the generous and
poetic instincts of the race. it was per-
fecly logical that saint and priest and
church should at once he the objects
of intense devotion and the target of
SLY, good-humored jibes and a certain
"irreverent reverence" 1t is very hui
man to have a shot occasionally at
those who are our leaders and guides
to bring those exalted creatures down
to earth; and the Irish are very hui
man.
The parish priest has always been
the guide, philosopher and friend Of
the Irish peasant: no wedding, chris
tening, pattern. fun or frolic, was COM
plete without his presence; yet many
a joke has become traditional at the
expense of the priest and Bishop just
as many laugh has been raised, not
at but Of the subject of religion. The
humbug and hypocrite get small
mercy from Irish tongues. A volume
of amusing stories might be told COW