The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-10-22

Humor and Sarcasm
TT Is seldom safe to joke in a letter
L especially if you are past youth and
if you occupy Il position of dignity
and Importance. 1t is practically
never safe to do so with people whom
you have never met or who do not
know you well. though you may some
times get away with it safely with
your acquaintance or your intimate
friends, but even with these it is an
uncertain trick. They aren't looking
for ii. and they do not know what to
make of it. l have tried it a few
times, but more often than otherwise
with fatal or disastrous results. My
jokes have fallen fiat or have been
misunderstood. They should have
been labeled perhaps so that they
might better have been c%atalogued.
Humor is based most frequently
upon exaggeration or upon some I'M
expected turn in the use of words and
we are not looking for this sort of
thing from a person whom we do not
know, and are usually at a loss to
know just what is meant.
Another uncertainty to be reckoned
with in attempting to be humorous in
a letter to a stranger lies in the fact
that there are many people in the
world who have no sense of humor, to
whom a joke is nothing more than a
misstatement, or an exaggeration, or
an error in speech. There is no hope
for such a person even if the pleas
antry be explained. He would never
understand why you did it.
The effectiveness of a humorous re
mark depends more often than other
wise upon carefully placed pauses.
upon peculiar emphasis or stress of
the voice, upon hesitation before ut
twinkle in the eye or a lifting Of the
eyebrows.
All these the man who writes the
may have in mind, but when his
communication is read a week later
perhaps and three thousand miles
away, there is nothing in it to sug-
gest these accompanying physical
manifestations on the part of the
and the point falls flat. One
Is accused of being sarcastic or i'm
pudent instead of being funny.
Sometimes even yet a joke creeps
inadvertently into my letters, but !
nave learned by sad experience that
t is unsafe to let them remain, and ]
the letter rewritten and relent-
essly stick to cold bald fact. 1t is
better to omit the joke in business
1t is never wise to use sarcasm In =
letter. Words that are spoken may
De soon forgotten and even if their 8
is cutting the sharpness may +
De dulled by the tone or the look, but
t remains to be reread, and to give
pain as time goes ON.
Irony may be kind; it's purpose is E
lot to injure or to give pain but sim E
'ly to stimulate, but sarcasm stirs up, E
lurts, and in general is intended to E
urt. 1t is a weapon against which E
1any people are helpless and without E
efense. E
Often 1t brings the result for the E
desired, but few people forget E
:. Its effects rankle for years. 1t Is E
safer weapon to use against men E
han against women, for in general E
len are less sensitive than women, E
heir skin is thicker and the sarcastic E
glances off without much dam E
ge, and is often received more as a E
ike than otherwise. But a woman E
not likely to forget a sarcastic re- E
lark nor Is she any more likely to E
'fgive it. When you have written a IL
letter to a woman, you If
light as well prepare permanently to Il
yer all future diplomatic relations If
18th her. She'll get your scalp some If
If she can. E
l had a letter only a short time ago "
ON a sensible balanced woman Of lE
iddle age or more who was herself H
teacher. She recalled q sarcastic IE
tier which she had received twenty H
,ars ago or more from a nan who IL
obably thought little Of it when he If
it and who had given it no CON H
since; but the words IL
mixed in her bosom still, she would IL
yer forget them and she would NE
yer quite forgive him or think well IL
him. E
IS very easy to write the sarcas- E