THE PROVINCIAL HUMOUR OF AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2626, 13 July 1904, Page 79

THE PROVINCIAL HUMOUR OF AMERICA.

If American's delight in pxerci»ing their wit a f ti;e expense of foreigner^, they are vi-r.e th. j '.^s.^ read} to amus; themselves by s.itiiisihg one aiv lier's peculiaiitits. E-.ppcialiv do thf deilve enter 1 ,'ininenl by pi'kmi,' fun cic the alJegerl clnraetcristics oi rival cities. As th-> T'lnglishman and the German si and for cKst net types' i.i the American pie<s, su do the BcMoal.m mid the Philadelphia!}.

The c"aim of Boston to be the liifrary and intellertu.il t^ntre of the United Stales iumi*hes the senbet of ail the rc--t of the country with opp'ir. urilie* of s.a:w&m- The? Bostonian is ri i pii"-entod a<* prone t yen from earliest da\s to the Us*? of Itsuned lancuage on all ocrtis un«. Here is, the 80-ton child: L-tt!e iiiis ilnffet Sat on a tii/Yet Hutu.g baked bc.in3 mcl brown biead. There ca.no a g'eat cycler And s.ai down bcs. f le lier ; 'MVh.it a fine n'-tjiope'" she said.

It is a Boston clergyman ivbo i« reported! to hive declared that Lot's wife was transI foimsd. into a motul'th of cliloiide of i fcodium. Not long ago, in a discussion whether '"exuectou.le," oi '"spit." .should be used in the li"al'h notices in the New York 1 street cars, it was mentioned that Mr Theodore lloo'-evelt, ■when l'cTice Commissioner, had pi ef erred the simpkr -word 1 . Tiwreuyon a (Jhiv-Miio paper promptly expressed its. regret, a s this levelption Avould >• assniedly lose for him the Boston vote. "What does ' incarceiafpd' mean. Weary'/" asks one tramp of a.notliei, in the New York Journal. '" Dat'.s gettiu' 'jugged,' in

Boston." i=; the r^ply

The following cuttings fiom the eutside press further illustrate tlrs conception of the scholar y atmosphere of Boston :

" Here, ' cried an irate passenger, "you've took us past Tremont street !" "Paidon me," replied the Boston street car conduo toi — '"you mean 'taken,' not 'took.' Now"