A Humorist’s Relaxation.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 21, 20 November 1912, Page 56

A Humorist’s Relaxation.

Calling one day upon a humorist — not one whose name appears upon the title-page of bound volumes, but a prolific writer of magazine and newspaper jokes, verse, and stories —a friend was not a little puzzled to find him seriously perusing that greatest of all classics, the Bible. Hardly knowing in what mood to speak of it, the caller half-jocularly asked: “What kind of funny idea do you expect to work up from that?” The humorist carefully inserted a book mark where he had been reading, and laid down the volume with that caressing gentleness which one accords a literary treasure, and, somewhat regretfully, answered his questioner: “Years ago I would never miss a day without reading something from either the Old or New Testament. But I have become so busy in my line of work that I have •to limit my reading of The Book so as to get in something from the other great works of inspiration. “I am now trying a plan of alternation. One day, for the limited time I can spare, I take the Bible; another day Shakespeare, another Plato, another Goethe, and so on. Then I have to find time for Dante, for Carlyle, for Emerson, and other philosophers. And I must also fit in a little from the French and Italian writers. Then there are the Oriental religions and mythologies to be considered —in translation. Also a smattering of the moderns—of Ibsen, of James, even of Shaw and Chesterton. Then I must slip in a few minutes of Browning, of Tennyson, of Whitman and a score of other English and American poets. Likewise there is to be snatched at intervals a chapter of fiction, both from the Masters and the neax-masters. “You will readily see from this rapid and skeletonized sketch, that I can hardly give a very exhaustive reading to any ■one of these, much as I should like to delve deeper into certain of them.” "But,” gasped the caller incredulously —st>ll suspecting a hidden “joker”—“you do not really mean that you read" all that stuff seriously? You "do it to get suggestions for your own writing, don’t you? I do not mean from the Bible, of course. But you find a whole lot you can jolly in the others, I suppose?”

Tlie humorist regarded the speaker with a quizzical smile. “I see,” he said, “I OU are one of those people who imagine that a professional ‘funny man* must be constantly jingling the jester’s bells, and whacking somebody with a bladder. Now, you are a doctor—or expect to be when you have paid for that sheepskin you are after. If I should call on you sometime when you are an established medico, with a large ami increasing practice, may I expect to find you immersed in treatises on medicine and surgery? Would it not seem more reasonable that you were seeking relaxation in a bit of exciting fiction, or a laughable story?” “Oh, well, that is different. Of course I should likely enough want to relieve the strain of professional duties by something of a lighter nature than clinical notes. But why you, who can write those clever things to make folks chuckle, should want to dig into such stuff as you have mentioned, is more than I can comprehend. The cases are not reversed; they have nothing in common."

The humorist touched his forehead: “My work is done here: but my life lies deeper. I make perhaps a passable quality of gingerbread trifles which please the people who care for sue.h dainties. But for my own mental and spiritual sustenance I must draw upon the vital nourishment of such mind and heart stuff as can only be found in the real ■writers —especially from those whom the world has rightly agreed to call ‘inspired.’ ”, The talk turned in other channels; but as the caller rose to leave, he still had in mind the opening conversation, and with a more understanding sympathy he said to the humorist (meaning it in a different sense than it needed), “You jokers are mighty funny folks.”