The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-05
By DOROTHY SCARBOROUGH.

THE EDITOR has an inIIminative ar
4 ticle by Annie Stoger Winston on
Democracy and Humor, which analyses
the philosophy of our laughter. Miss
Winston takes as her theme the idea that
humor is essentially undemocratf, because
Lased on some sense of inferiority in the
person or thing laughed at, and argues
that the progress of civilization is shown
by the changing sources Of our mirth.
In early times physical deformity pro-
voked ridicule, as it does in some circles
to-day. Insanity was made sport of IN
much the same fashion that now finds
drunkenness amusing. More intellectual
hut still undemocratic, laughter springs
from consideration of the social or mental
disadvantages of others, either temporary
or permanent. Miss Winston argues that
when society advances toward true de-
mocracy we shall cease laughing at others.
I have entertained myself by studying
some of the stories in the current maya
zines in the light of Miss Winston's re-
marks. have tried to decide whether
certain stories really are funny, whether
they honestly do make us laugh, or even
emile, and if so, why. Is the basis of
humor barbaric, semi-civilized or only
slightly undemocratic? A humorous story
is hard to write, but easy to seil-perhaps
because we are becoming too civilized.
An illustration of the primitive sense of
tumor is shown in The Spelling of Phd-
raoh, by Francis Gilchrist Wood, in the
Pictorial Review, a mirth with which the
author shows no sympathy, and so we con-
elude that she is modern. The negroes
working in the phosphate rock in the pine
barrens of Florida laugh at the crippled
Jim who is essentially man, and give
their admiration to a staggering rufian
because he is physically perfect. But the
reversal of fortune changes all that, and
respect veers round to Jim because of
something ludicrous that happens to Pha-
raoh's physiognomy. The story is well
told, and we readers feel pity for print
tive minds that can find pleasure in the
affection of jim
The Curious BehdUiOr Of Myrd Gates,
by Thomas Beer, in the Metropolitan has
for the basis of its visibility the antics of
a drunken man. This antique vaudevil-
han stuff which will doubtless soon be OBJ
solescent in our fiction attempts to justify
itself by the use of contrasts. The intoxi-
Gated man is represented as one normally
sober, but merely eelebrant of regatta
which be has travelled from Seattle to see.
He staggers unchaperoned into a house
where the secluded daughter of an intense
prohibitionist chances to be spending the
night alone. Thus we see that what humor
is here present comes from incongrmty,
from juxtaposition of unlike concepts,
Cock-G-Doodle-Doo, by Octavius Roy
Cohen, in the Saturday Evening Post,
doubtless furnishes amusement to uncriti-
cal readers in large numbers. What is it
they laugh at? The humor here rests on
verbal determines, on twisted language
rather than twisted legs, on illogical con-
illusions. The laugh springs from enjoy
ment of the social embarrassment Of two
colored suitors who make joint proposal
to their dark lady, and on the moral
obliquity of deciding who shall win her
(by cock fight. There is complicated
cheating in this forbidden game, unre-
buked by the author. Why should we
find the dialect and the misdemeanors of
colored persons a cause for mirthf Yet