Judge — October 10, 1914 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

D “American Humor” TEPHEN LEACOCK writes in the Nineteenth Century an article on ‘‘American Humor" that would be enter- taining alone for its native examples of amusing writing if it did not interest as an essay. He dwells upon the larger personalities in humor, like Mark Twain, Artemus Ward, Lowell, Holmes, Bret Harte and others whose fame is universal, and ana- lyzes the differences that mark English and American writing and appreciation, assuming for English authors a greater adherence to fact and finer senses inspired by and responsive to a more finished lit- erary environment, and regarding Ameri- cans as the more strikingly original, even though they tend to exaggeration, because of their lack of literary restriction and the comparative freshness of their sur- roundings. Mr. Leacock quotes the abstruse defini- tions of humor put forth by Kant and Schopenhauer, and adds that ‘‘it is still to be desired that While the greater humorists whose works are embalmed in books are the en- joyed property of the world at large, the contemporary journalistic humorists are closer to the public, because they daily amuse it along lines of life as it is hap- pening. Some of the great humorists also did this at first, and at last some of. these everyday wits are bound to take places beside the great. Moreover, there are many humorists who do not write at all, yet they season and brighten daily life about them. Too Bad! Too Bad! A NEWS dispatch reports that the Sul- tan of Zanzibar has just arrived in Paris, with thirteen wives and only five dollars. He was heard to remark that “War is hell Not So! [7 JS claimed by those who do not wish to see him there that Mr. Taft, if appointed to the Supreme Court bench, some competent analyst of the es- thetic should lay down @ general theory of the hu- morous which may supply a practical criterion of what is and what is not amusing.”’ True, But there’s the rub! The diverse shades of humor and its apprecia- tion in mankind make impossible any reasonable “theory”? as to what is amusing and what is not. And essayists will always split upon this rock of factin any effort to re- duce humor and its appeal to a science. married, aren't you? Reggre—No. THE RETURN VOYAGE Pegyie—Oh, we are getting up atug-o'war team between the married and the single men. BobLle Roque I've been seasick ; that's why I look that way. pme acheck upon that illustrious body. Not so, friends—not a check, but rather a re-seated Bill. Brief Decisions WE DON'T really care for gossips, but, afterall, why should we not all be tattlers if Darwin's theory of evolu- tioniscorrect? Were not our original for- bears—or, perhaps more properly speak- ing, our formonkeys—all tail bearers? { It is said that Trinity River, in Texas, upon whtch the government has already expended $1,000,000 and seeks to spend $225,000 more, is as dry as a bone. The explanation probably is that the $1,225,- 000 represents the water. There is always one ship that is repug- nant to the American spirit, and that is the censorship. While Great Britain is engaged in reg- ulating the British Channel, we hope she will incidentally do something to curb the insurgent habits of the waters therein, It has always destroyed our satisfaction with forty-seven- dollar dinners at Paris to think of the tribute we shall have to pay those riotous depths on our re- turn trip. } The labor and study necessary to merely acquire skill at billiards would win a small fortune if practi- cally applied. 1 It is probably true that more people would mind their own business if they were paid asmall salary for doing, You are comicbooks.com