Bisbee daily review., 1922-06-27
Art OF MiddiEng
Is American
Trait
Trait

The greatest American art-the
Art of Kidding!
Come, now, isn't it? We may not
have produced Shakespeare, a Wag-
ner, a Leonardo da Vinci-in fact,
we haven't With all due respect to
our literary, musical, painting and cary
ing gentlemen oe the past and pres
emit, they are not in the 100 per cent
genius class.
But when it comes to kidding,
there's another story to tell. | am
positive that we have more ground
and lofty kidders to the square mile
than any other country. We kid our
friends, we kid our families, we kid
our boss, we even-if we're really
clever and intelligent ourselves
| and have a perfectly beautiful time
doing it Our own Mark Twain held
| the foreign and domestic champion
ships for kidding. And we all do
what we can in that line.
Why do we do it 50 well? Why
do we like it so much? What is the
formula for successful kidding? What
kind of kidding makes us angry?
These were a few Of the questions
/ | put to perhaps the most perfect
! kidder in America-"Dr. Walter E.
Traprock, F. E. S. S. E. IT," the
dauntless and intrepid explorer who
took-and wrote-"The Cruise OF the
Kawa," that gorgeous take-off on
South Sea stuff.
Kidding as an Art
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 a smile to cross his
countenance. His audience-perhaps
even his victim-may smile broadly
tee-hee gleefully, laugh thunderously
Not the, kidder. He keeps his mlrtn
on the other fellows face
THAT is why, to my mind, WINE
| Collier is the most perfect example
of the American fidder He klos
everything in sight he kids hlmseI
and his methods, but he is always
! perfectly serious about j. Franz
Tinneys humor is OF a different sor'
not the humor of the kidder."
every kid must have its goat,
said the Kidder Extraordinary.
"On most points Americans stand
being kidded wonderfully. The reason
nrobablv is that they themselves like
tn kid. and that they know they
must be It part of the time. PROB
ably there has been no country OF
age i'm which the art of kidding has
been practiced so generally as in the
limited States today. Max Beerbohm
is a wonderful English kidder, anC
Auatole France fills the role in his
own country, yet theirs is kidding
with a difference. They are so subtle
about it that, brilliant as they are
the ordinary reader may not reallz'
that they are kidding at all.
kidding in America proceeds OF
broad. democratic lines. 1t is prac
t,cally unanimous. Mark Twain, o
course. made kidding immortal; il
hi. Innocents Abroad he kidded {
continent and its traditions; IN hi
"A Connecticut Yankee at the Cour
of King Arthur he kidded an age.
Women Hate Kidding
American women are as expert a
American men% | asked.
mot vet" he answered. "Womel
are more thin-skinned than me-
about being kidded, and thefeor
\ they hesitate to do much kidding
7 Two men in an office will kid tn
life out of each other for half a.
hour. and then go cut to lunch tn
best of friends. If two women shoul
ever exchange half as many genla
insults. they'd never speak to eac
other again.
But as more women go out int
the world and develop into good fe