The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-07-15
KIDDING HABIT
Is VERY STRONG
We Americans Are Prone
to Joke About Evils,
Writer Says
OUR PECULIAR TRAIT
We Laugh Over Law Viola
tions That Would Aggra-
vate the ,Britons

The greatest American art -- the
art Of kidding! We have more
ground and lofty "kidders" to tho
square mile than any other coun-
try. We Kid our friends. We hid our
FAMILIES. we kid our boss, we even
Kid ourselves. Mark Twain held the
foreign and domestic championships
Tor kidding.
why do we do It so well? Why
do we like IL so much? What is
the formula for successful kidding?
What kind of kidding makes us
angry?
These were a few Of the questions
pat 10 perhaps the most perfect KID
der In America -- Or Walter f.
Traprock, +. Il. S. 5. +. U.." the
dauntless and intrepid explorer who
wrote The Cruise of the kawa,"
burlcsque on the south seas stuff.
Kidding Making Fun Seriously.
Doctor TraprOck," il seems, has
Just returned TO New York. with the
manuscript OF his new book. "AIy
Northern Exposure" i'm which he
fe'rlessly turns the light--doubtless
the northern liEhts-on the pole IT.
self, doctor Traprock" ia Doctor
Jekyll--or is Il his Mr.. HYDE -
anyhow, his other incarnation.
George $. Chappell may be found
almost any day livening up life and
making Vanity Fair less of a vanity.
Kidding" he defined in a single
sentence. above everything else is
the art of making fun seriously.
Your perfect kidder never allows
the flicker OF n smile to cross his
Countenance. Hiss audience - per-
haps even his victim may smile
broadly, tee-hce glccfullv. laugh
thunderously. Not the kidder. He
keeps his mirth on the other fell
lows face.
That is why. to my mind, Willie
Collier is the perfect example of the
American kidder. He kids every
thing I'm sight, he kids himself and
his methods, but he is always per-
fectly serious about IL.
Mark Twain Started II.
"On most points Americans stand
being kidded wonderfully. The rea-
son probably Is that they themselves
like to kid. and that they know they
must be 1T part Of the time. Prob
ably there has been no country or
age In which the art Of kidding has
been praCticed so generally as in the
United States today. Max Reerbohm
IS wonderful English kidder, and
Anltole France fills the role in his
own country, yet theirs is kidding
with a difference. They are so sub.
tie about II that, brilliant as they
ere, the ordinary reader may not
realize that they are kidding at all.
kidding In American proceeds on
broad democratic lines. 1t is practi-
cally unanimous. Mark Twain, Of
course, made kidding immortal: in
his Innocents Abroad he kiddod
continent and its traditions: in his
\ connecticut Yankee at the Court
OF King Arthur he kidded an age.
Many Americans have n dent whore
their bump Of reverence should be
that's why they're such expert
kidders."
Women Hate 10 "Be It,"
women cannot stand much kid
ding. Two men in an office will
KID the life out of each other for
half an hour. and then go out TO
lunch the best of friends II two
women should ever exchange half
as many genial insults the'd never
speak to each other again. But as
more women go out into the world
and develop into good fellows, they
improve as kidders. l know some
women who can even stand being
kldded by their husbands - and
that's the ultimate test.
There Is one form OF kidding
which none of us enjOy-thats the
Kidding from an outsider. a for
eigner. Americans believe that kid
ding should begin at homeland end
there. They will stand for all sorts
OF iovial criticism from each other,
but let lady from over the water