The Yankee Humour of the Period.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 34, 4 March 1875, Page 3

The Yankee Humour of the Period.

American humour . was once- a very genuine' and characteristic product. The humour, for exarrple, of the "Biglow Papers " was singularly fresh, and has preserved the book in spite of the fact that many of its topics and allusions have already become unintelligible to the English reader. It: was a full expression of the characteristic qualities of the genuine Yankee before he was swamped by the immigration of millions of Irishmen or had : set up to talk philosophy. It was the keen mother- wit of a race distinguished for strong common sense, and marked by a curious reserve produced by a Puritan education or by the natural j temperament of the race. Nothing I could ...be better or -more racy in its way, though to many tastes it appeared to be rather . too dry and to verge at times upon -the cynical. This last quality, indeed, is much more conI spicuous in some of Hosea's successors, who have chosen to flavor their ; natural wit with a considerable dose of irreverance. . But not to dwell upon the peculiar qualities of the genuine article, we may admit that even the later or Artemus Ward variety of humourist had some real merits which more or less justified the popularity of their books in England. The success has led to a host of imitators, and, as in other, cases, the ; difference between the Brummagem article, and that upon which it is moulded is that, whereas the true Yankee humour is the expression of, a particular type of intellect, the sham humour represents only ; the incessant application of a simple trick. Here, again, we might construct a formula which would enable any man of ordinary capacity to manufacture just as much facetiousness of this variety as he pleased. One secret, if it can be called a secret, is simply to I speak ;of things in .totally disproportionate language j as, for example, you | may either describe a. great national solemnity, as if it .were a riieetihg of- drunken ' costermongers or adopt the inverse. But this ' trick is com 7 ; mon to other vaiieties of huniorous | writing. To give ithe special 1 Y ankee | twang to the mixture, it.is desirable to introduce a flavour of r ]b]asphemy or cynicism. There are dangers in adoptiing_the fire'texiiedient, hilt- the last I presents no difficulty whatever. • Thus, - for. example, -it ; hascome to ,be recog^ hised as a very fiinhy 'mode of speech Ito describe a hideous crime or a stairt-^ :^G[9y3fln^;in^ljensujßly i|n9pps9|^|%te , [language. If a dozen passengers have | been killed! on thej^aiiway by the 3 gtdss' i neglectcof the qfficjtalf, you have only to | say thatr, |he r der£s playfully sent a jwrorigy ibeisage^s with the object of jg?atijyitig| their scientific curiosity as

to the collision of heavy bodies, and that, owing to a trifling excess of zeal, a few passengers who had. not explicitly consented to the experiment were more Or less spoilt in carrying it out. Or, if a brutal laborer kicks his wife to death, it is just as easy as not to say that he took a rather stringent view of the raatriinonal relation, and. chose to emphasise a delicate remonstrance by administering a few rhetorical flourishes with the toe of an iron-shod boot. This artifice is for a time impressive by its novelty, and does indifferently well for what is called scathing sarcasm. We are struck by the ingenuity of the irony, and think that the writer must be a very clever fellow always to* say white when he means us to understand black. But when the dodge has been repeated a few dozen times, it becomes, to our taste at least, inexpressibly wearisome. — * Saturday Review.'