Year: 1872

THE man who loves his joke ought not
to be a wit. Wits are dangerous; they
are human wasps. The joker's thrusts
should be as pointless as @ lath's, his
shots as harmless as those of a stage
SNOWFALL. When he speaks his hearers
should be perfectly at their ease, and nos
feel single moments anxiety as TO what
may be coming next.


Wits are sparing of their words, and
only place them out at good interest; the
joker is lavish of his; he bestows them as
gratuitously and abunuantly as public
fountain. Sometimes it will happen that
joker's sallies vii miss fire six or seven
times running. In these cases he never
betrays the modification which the sensi-
tive wit evinces when an epigram of his
has passed unperceived. Far from it; if
nobody else laughs he laughs alone as
heartily as seven or eight together, after
which he plunges out into more jokes,
and goes on until by hook or crook his
hearers laugh with him. Another par
ticular in which the joker differs from
the wit is this s.: The wit may be terrible
adversary, but he is not stumbling
block. He does not force himself upon
one, and may be always avoided with a
moderate amount of discretion but it is
just the opposite with the joker. Glad as
one may be to meet him at the club fire.
side ON an afternoon when it rains and
there is nothing new in the papers, one is
not always delighted to come across him
elsewhere. And yet, whether one likes it
or not, his society must be borne with.
By nature he is irrepressible, and crops
up everywhere. 1t is no use trying to
snub him, for, if he sees you are annoyed,
he treats it as joke, and chuckles good
humoredly. If you bar the door to him,
he puts in his CHEEKY face at the window;
if you frown, he rails; if you sulk, he
banters. The idea that he is making you
lose time or patience or money does not
seem to occur to him, and if it did he
would only look upon it as another joke,
and laugh as pleasantly as ever.


1t should be noticed that the man who
loves his joke is generally much liked by
his children and his servants, but not al
| ways worshipped by his wife. Women
have no great taste for joking. They
have word essentially feminine to de-
scribe the individual overgiven to the
practice they call him aggravating, and
frequently suffer incoHceivable irritation
in his presence. Women like to be
courted, to be admired, to be talked with
gaily, but respectfully and gallantly, all
of which things it is mostly beyond the


power of the joker to do. Women are


also fond of sympathy. They have al


ways little troubles of their own to which


it pleases them to see man listen with


interest and apparent compassion. Emo.


ton, real or feigned, will put a man deep


in woman's good graces courteous and


kindly Difference will WOO her better than


handsome face and subtle wit. But, on


the other hand, the inveterate facetious


ness of the man who loves his joke will


throw a woman into dumb furies which


men, who are content to treat an eterna
joker as mere bore, can hardly realize


Nothing so exasperates wife as to see


her husband make light of those small


domestic miseries over which women fire.


because they have often nothing else tC


occupy their time with and men addicted


to joking are always doing this. If some


thing goes wrong in the house, if brace


of grouse mysteriously disappears, if 6


crystal dish be carelessly broken, if tn,


footman stays out an hour behind hi


time, they can seldom resist the tempta


ton of being funny, and the more lament


able the incident from the uxorial poin


of view, so much the more lively will b


their jesting. If Balzac had ever sketch


ed the man who loves his joke. he woult


have pointed out with his diabolical spiri


of induction how men who act thus grad


ually estrange their wives. Women will


not-bo laughed out of their whims no
accept jokes as substitute for the sym
pathy and attention they feel to be thei
!, due.


However, if often blessed with wifi
who looks unadmiringly upon his drollt


rles, and wonders in private what peopl
can find to laugh at in them, the joker ha
consultations of all sorts outside his home
for he is generally an immense favorit
, with the public. The English like t
have about them the linen that are ia
!, sleek headed men, and such as sleep
J nights" A portly, we'll to -dojoker is SUI
: to make his way with them; they comm
, their trust to him more than to anothe
they pass lightly over mis- faults, and
perchance, his taste for joking leads hir


to mismanage their affairs little, the
r still prefer their being mismanaged /
s him to their being well managed by IL
e wiser man who would do their busine
0 with grievous countenance.


i Thus the man who loves his joke form
e part of all the public meetings, not e
g cepting these of share holders. and not
y ing is so refreshing as to see him get I
l. and coax into good humor an audien
l. giving tokens of sulkiness. Sometime
e to be sure, the audience have reason to
IS sullen; but this is no matter. The sere
1t ity of the joker is imperturbable; he tax
% his stand upon the platform with col
le placency which nothing can shake, al
If there must be something altogether wroI
le if in few minutes he cannot stir up Il
ot laughter, renewed laughter and roars
g laughter, which are such god sends
ID tired reporters. Here it may be remark,
y cursorily how exceedingly little it requir