Central High School - Interlude Yearbook (South Bend, IN)

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5 THE INTERLUDE 1 1 1 H U M O R 1 1 1 ,vy HAT is lnnnor and what do we mea11 'Yy dit you vant to make it ven it vas made Qf, by a sense of humor? XYebster de- alretty ?' g-ff! Fines humor as that which is adapted fNo, I mean l was too late to get aboard ?' L '4 to excite laughter, and a sense of 'Yot for you vant a board F' humor has come to mean the readiness to see a joke , the ability to laugh at the laughable or incongruous in life. And what a dull, uniform, unhappy place the world would be without this sense of humor. Suppose Cervantes, Rabelais, Shakespeare, Dickens, Sydney Smith had never been born-let's not. The thought is too dismal to contemplate. Wit, including satire, irony, sarcasm, is a form of humor not so much appreciated by the Teu- tonic mind as the Celtic. Wit is artificial, and may be acquired, humor is natural and a sense of hu- mor can never be grafted in a soul so unhappy as to be without it. Wit is a product of the intellect, humor, of the imagination and affections. The essence of wit is cleverness, sharpness, hawk- eyed mental cunning, the essence of humor is warmth, tenderness, love. The witty man iso- lates himself and watches like a spy in the corner while the humorist mingles with men. Wit is cold, sparkling, mercurial, subtile, volatile, elec- tric, humor is warm, genial, natural, kind, hearty, harmless. Some one has said that humor and pathos are twins. The humorist laughs through tears , but wit is never pathetic. Wit is brief, rapier-like. Humor is broad and diffusive. Wit converges to a focus, like a lens, humor distorts, multiplies like a prism. Wit is chain- lightning-dazzling, terrifying, humor is sum- mer sheet-lightning-Iiarmless and beautiful. The retort of a Boston lawyer when cross-ex- amining the plaintiff in a divorce trial: 'You wish to divorce this woman because she drinks F' 'Yes, sir.' 'Do you drink yourself ?' 'That's my business !'--angrily. 'Have you any other business? is witty, while the following account of the lack of fellow feeling on the part of a German is hu- morous: In a wild dash to catch his train a belated suburbanite went leaping up the stairs at an 'Li station, only to reach the platform just as the gates were slammed shut and the train began to move. Panting violently, and watching the de- parting train for a moment, he finally sought to elicit a little sympathy or comfort from a Ger- man bystander. Assuming an air of indiffer- ence, he remarked good-naturedly, 'I didn't quite make it l' 'Make vot ?' inquired the German, who, appar- ently, had not noticed anything unusual. 'That train.' fNo, not that, I wanted to take that train.' 'How coot you took it veu so many hat it al- retty F' 'No, no, no' texcitedlyj : 'I mean I wanted to ride on that train. but didn't get here soon enoughf just then the German's train pulled up at the station, and as he stepped through the gate he was heard to reply: 'Dot vos too bad: but how vos it any of my pizness ?' ' A form of humor that is intensely amusing and much abused is parody. A parody is a bringing of a great idea and trivial one into sudden and unexpected collision, clothed as nearly as may be in the same dress. Three conditions are neces- sary to a successful parody- it must be legiti- mately comic, it must be a skillful minicry of a well-known original that is neither too good to be above, nor too bad to be below, ridicule, and it must be brief. These three conditions are fulfilled in the amusing American parody on Moore, relating an incident we have all met with but perhaps never told so cleverly or with such an absence of temper: I never had a piece of bread Particularly good and wide, That fell not on the sanded rloor, And always on the buttered side. We laugh at a parody and yet we feel a sense of loss, of unrest. Something has been stolen from the beauty and sublimity of the poem, and ever after a vague, Pandora-like shadow will glide between us and its real meaning, an ugly, mocking, little elf will jeer at us from between the lines. VVe feel that Something beautiful is vanished, And we sigh for it in vain, We behold it everywhere, On the earth and in the air, But it never comes again l ln a way a parody is a compliment to the pop- ularity of a selection for only something very well-known can be successfully parodied. The selections most parodied are Shakespeare's To Be or Not to Be , Gray's Elegy , Moore's 'Twas Ever Thus and Believe Me , Tenny- son's 'fBrook , and Poe's Raven , VVe are all agreed that humor furnishes sup- port and consolation under the trials, vexatious, and disappointments of life, but it has other and perhaps graver uses. Emerson says that the perception of the ludicrous is a pledge of san-

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Tl-IEI TER DE VoL. X. SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, MAY, 1910. No. 8 if 1 1 THE CLASS OF HNINETEEN TEN 1 1 1 Upon the threshold long we stand Like bold Aeneas leaving Troy. Before us lies a fateful land, liehind, the work of heart and hand Has ripened into joy. VVhen lo, an omen fair we see, A fiery comet trailing flame Across the sky,-an augury That bodes for us a destiny Of never-ending fame. 'Tis said that works of great moment The blazing eomet's path precedes, Then this may be our herald sent, A flaming pillar earthward bent, Inspiring worthy deeds: That we the class of Nineteen-ten With burning hearts and serried lines, May, failing, only strive again, And seek reward beyond all ken:- This year the comet shines! lt comes, and silver starlight pales Before its meteoric gold, But soon chaotic darkness veils Its gleam, the void from whence it hails Receives it as of old. From out the depths of stilly night, Through space unmeasured, vast, lt toiled with supernatural might, Until triuniphantly its light Emerged, and shone at last. And thus before us lies our way, Unknown and oft beset with trials. We, too, must wait until the day NVhen we at last through hard essay, May conquer Fortune's wiles. Our comet passes star on star And boldly braves the dim abyss, And though our progress leads us far, No obstacle shall stay, or mar Our fame's transcendent bliss. For we shall strive until we gain The goal to which we each aspire, Nor ever deem the struggle vain, Since, as we toil with might and main, We near our heart's desire. And though within the ranks enrolled, Our fate decrees we may not be, No flame of zeal shall e'er grow cold. Though silent stars alone behold Our strife and victory. No petty aims shall rule our year , No petty deed disgrace its fame. Beneath our comet glancing clear, Can live no tainting thought of fear Of cowardice or shame, The while our motto-like the call Of bugle blast that piercingly Rings throufvh the soldiers' banquet hall- Inspires the hearts of one and all With hope of victory. Then here's to our own Nineteen-ten! The class that was, and is to be. Lift up once more our banner then, And cry the slogan o'er again, No strife, no victory. And though divided on Life's strand, May we still battle so that when The rolls of fame unopened stand, The foremost named of all that band Will be the class of '10. THUSA MADELLA REAM, '10.

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THE INTERLUDE 7 ity. A rouge alive to the ludicrous is still con- vertible. If that sense is lost, his fellow-man can do little for him. Such is the state1ne11t of one of the wisest and sanest men that ever lived. llumor preserves health. gives rest to thought- ful. busy, energetic minds, prevents narrowness and prejudices, and is the guardian of the minor morals of society: that is, it limits eccentricity, impudence, selhshness, extravagance. lt is a weapon to whip into place those who are insen- sible to ordinary moral denunciation. A man who will laugh at a sermon will shrink from a laugh. I own I'm proud-I inust be proud--to sec Men not afraid of God afraid of ine, - was the boast of the little wasp of Twicken- ham . Many evils, such as duclling were only abolished when the world ridiculed them. As Thackeray has pointedly expressed it, the humor- ist is a week-day preacher . 'ZX great tragic poet ought also to be a great comic poetfl once said Socrates, and Arch-deacon llare has said of the great Shakespeare in whom these qualities were united- No heart would have been strong enough to hold the woe of l.ear and Othello, ex- cept that which had the unquenchable elasticity of lialstaff and the .llid-szllnmef' Niglifs Dream . lflumor quickens friendship. How often has a laugh united a roomful of strangers who but for the timely jest might have been strangers to the end of the chapter. And error itself is best con- fronted with a smiling face and gentle ridicule, rather than glum looks and dreary sermons. llut the expression that you can never get too much of a good thing does not hold true in this case. l'erverted humor is a bad thing. A char- acter all hunior is like a glass of wine all froth. llunior should have a foundation of good sense and substantial thought or it is injurious to its possessor and wearisome to his friends. Humor is perverted when it is used to give pain. Ihat humor which makes fun of the misfortunes of others is not really humor. Irreverence, a mock- ing of the deep and tragic things of life, an ap- plication of liiblical passages to trivial or ludicr- ous events is always a misuse of humor. as is also a combination of the grave and the ridiculous, the mean and the exalted, or a rapid descent from the sublime and beautiful to the false and de- grading. The first American humorist was llenjamin Franklin, who even to this day has not been sur- passed in either the quality or quantity of his humor. His humor is abundant and never fail- ing, as fresh and enjoyable in the twentieth cen- tury as it was in the eighteenth. His humor was homely, keen, practical. llis almanac abounds with sparkling fun: If you'd lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money. Knaves a11d nettles are aking stroke 'em even kindly, yet they'll sting. The good or ill hap of a good or ill life, is the good or ill choice of a good or ill wife. It is ill-manners to silence a fool, and cruelty to let him go on. To bear other peoples aftlictions every one has enough to spare. No workman without tools. Nor lawyer without fools Can live by their rules. Love your neighbor, yet don't pull down the hedge. Many a man's own tongue gives evidence against his understanding. If jack's in love, he's no judge of -Iill's beauty. i His autobiography has many passages of ex- quisite humor: where he tells of Kermer, a printer, a great glutton, who invited two friends and Franklin to dine with him, and ordered a roast pig: But, it being brought too soon upon the table, he could not resist the temptation and ate the whole before we came. XVhen American Minister to Paris, .Franklin was greatly pressed by F renehmen whom he did not know for recommendations to military .com- missions. So he prepared an introductory 'let- ter that might serve for all: . Sir: The bearer of this, who is going to .-Xmerica, presses me to give him alletter of rec- ommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name, This may seem extraordi- nary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another equally unknown to recommend himg and sometimes they reconnnend one another. As to this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend him, however, to thosecivili- ties which every stranger, etc. Wliile his reply to his daughter who had SCl1t for some Paris goods, among them lace and feathers, must have been very disappointing for her, it is full of a quaint, delicious humor for us. He says: I send all the articles you desire that are use- ful and necessary and omit the rest: for as you say you should have great pride in wearing any- thing I send, and showing it as your fatl1er's taste, I must avoid giving you an opportunity of doing that with either lace or feathers. If you wear your cambric ruffles as I do and take care not to mend the holes, they will come in time to be laceg and feathers, my dear girl, may be had in America from every cock's tail. This is humor without sting, kindly, delightful fun which fills ns with a pleasurable glow with- out provoking uproarious laughter. The laugh- ter holding both its sides style of humor belongs to Mark Twain more than to any other humorist. Every word-ripples and erackles with fun. His humor is the true American brand that can be appreciated nowhere in the world so well as in