Year: 1872


THE man who loves his joke ought not


to be 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 MOI
feel single moments anxiety as TO what


may be coming next.


Wits are sparing Of their words, and
only place them out at good d'lnterest; the


Joker is lavish of his; he bestows them as


gratuitously and abundantly as public


fountain. Sometimes it will happen that


ioker's ,sallies viii 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 lat1ghs he laughs alone as


heartily as seven or eight together, after


which he plHnges 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 The wit maylbesa terrible


adversary, but he is not stumbling


block. He does not force himself upon


one, and may be always avoided with q
moderate amount of discretion but it is


just the opposite with the joker. Glad as


one may be~to meet him ,atlthe club fre'
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 nrepressible, and crops
up everywhere. It 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, ne
banters The idea that he is making you
lose time or patience or money does not
seem to occur to- him, ands if itHdid 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 inconceivable irritation
in his presence. Women like, ito, 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 man deep
in woman's good graces courteous and
kindly Difference will WOO her better than
a 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 eternal
Joker as a mere bore, can hardly realize.


Nothing so eXasperates wife as to see
her husband make light of those small
domestic miseries over which women fret
because they have often nothing else to
occupy their time with and men addicted
to Joking are always doing this. If some
thing goes wrong in the house, if a brace
of grouse mysteriously disappears, if a
crystal dish be carelessly broken, if the
footman stays out an hour behind his
time, they can seldom resist the tempta-
ton of being funny, and the more lament
able the incident from the uXOrial point
of view, SO much the more lively will be
their testing. If Balzac.had ever sketch
ed the man who loves his joke. he would
have pointed out with his diabolical spirit
of induction how men who act thus grad
ually estrange their wives Women will
not be laughed out of their whims nor
accept Jokes as a substitute for the SYM
pathy and attention they feel to be their
due.


However, if often blessed with a wife
who looks unadmiringly upon his drolle-
ries, and wonders in private what people
can find to laugh at in them, the joker has
consultations of all sorts outside his home,
for he is generally an immense favorite
with the public. The English like to
have about them the "men that are fat,
sleek headed men, and such as sleepo
nights" A portly, well to-dojoker is sure
to make his way with them; they commit
their trust to him more than to another,
they pass lightly over. mis- faults, and if,
perchance, his taste for joking leads him
to mismanage their affairs little, they
still prefer their being mismanaged by
him to their being well-managed by the
wiser man who would do their business
with grievous countenance.


Thus the man who loves his joke forms
part of all the public meetings, not eX-
cepting those of shareholders, and moth
in 2 is so refreshing as to see him get up
and coax into good humor an audience
giving tokens of sulkiness. Sometimes,
to be sure, the audience have reason to, be
sullen; but this is no matter. The seren-
ity of the iolSer is imperturbable; he takes
his stand upon the platform with COM
placency which nothing can shake. and
L
if ip few minutes he cannot stir up the
laughter, renewed laughter and roars of
laughter, which are such god sends to
tired reporters. Here it may be remarked
cursorily how exceedingly little it requires
to throw intelligent assemblies of English.
men into convulsions Of hilarity., It is
even probable that directors of tottering
companies have closely studied this fact,
for it is usually to the man who loves his
joke that is committed the duty of de-
cclaring the dividends of rid per share.


But it is not enough for us to see our
favorite Joker stand up in public place
and banter us agreeably about the money
we have lost. We dearly. love to see him
hold one of those posts of dignity and
emolument where the, least of his funny
sayings is couched upon paper to be
transmitted to posterity. t#


The Judge who loves his joke and the
Magistrate who loves his joke are both
types we venerate and eherish%- 10 has.
not taken up his journal and dwelt with
emotion on the report of the trial where
the Judge has kept his hearers in fits dur
ing a whole summers day by succession
of irresistible pleasantries? And the
Magistrate who loves his joke! Is there
anything Comparable ito the scene in a
police court when the cheerful stipendi
ary has got out of bed the right side and
comes down brisk and fresh to his days
work? There is in attendance a man
who has been bitten by his neighbor's
dog, and wants to see the quadruped
dealt with accnrding to law 1t is q real