College of St Marys of the Springs - Yearbook (Columbus, OH)

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WL SWL JAWL JWI. JWWil'WI!!WI!!'WHlt '4L1 a . 0 I 0 I 0 I. 0 0 0 1 up 1: . 5 'up , 'avi' -.gp iv' 'N' 'V i 'Sli' mrfz-1-asswtafz.Jsm+m+m+z.r+w.+1c4fa 2+KMfsw+zJ+Q+f.A+Q+KJvk awake old fellow whose twinkling blue eyes see every side of human existence, but especially the comic side. No matter how apparently serious the thing may be, he can invariably find something funny in it. The old scamp exaggerates outrageously and has a quaintness, a drollery, a waggishness peculiar to himself. His humor disports itself in caricatures, car- toons and colored supplements. It is more of the head than Paddy's, less of the heart, though not without an occasional gleam of tenderness. Often, it must be confessed with shame, Uncle Sam's fun is grossly irreverent, and this spirit, together with his fondness for exaggeration, he has imparted to all his nieces and nephews who never know when a joke has been carried far enough, and who regard nothing as too sacred for buffoonery. Unfortu- nately, too, they have inherited from their English fathers a tendency to coarseness and thus further disfigure much of their really fresh and delightful humor. If we were some modern Paris seated on the mountain top, and John Bull, Paddy and Uncle Sam should come along in an airship bearing a golden apple of Discord on which was inscribed To the funniest, and should ask us to decide the merits of their respective claims, we should be sorely tempted to award the prize to Paddy: for he knows best how to distin- guish genuine humor from counterfeit. To him fun has no kinship with coarseness, brutality, licentiousness, and profaneness, but goes hand in hand with purity, love, pathos and wide- reaching sympathy. Pick out of mirth, like stones out of thy ground, Profaneness, filthiness, abusiveness, These are the scum with which coarse wits abound The fine may spare these well, yet not go less. All things are big with jestg nothing that's plain, But may be witty, if thou hast the vein. lid 'ftlllllt E ta tige detachee ,,. Pauvre feuille dessechee, Ou vas-tu?-je n'en sais l..'orage a brise le chene Qui seul etait mon soutien. De son inconstante haleine, Le zephir ou l'aquilon Depuis ce jour me promene De la foret a la plaine. De la montagne au vallon. Je vais ou le vent me mene, Sans me plaindre ou m'effrayer: Je vais ou va toute chose, Cu va la feuille de rose Et la feuille de laurier. MADYLIN AUGUSTIN, 'l3. fTranslationJ fl!! Eta! U V! HERE, from stem dashed away, Withered leaf, dost thou stray? rien, fir-55 As to that, why I do not know. The storm, the oak has liven, Erst my sole support, and lol By fickle winds I'm driven. The northern and western gales Toss me about in their breeze O'er the plains and thro' the trees. From high mountain tops to vales. I go where the winds please, Without murmur or fear- Where everything goes, Where petal of rose And leaf of green laurel grown sere. ARNAUL-1-, LAURA GALLAGHER, '12, 24

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JODII Bllll, Pddd dtld UIICIQ Sdlll ZIS wits A Cf T and humor are the birthright of the race. Men of all ages and all nations possess in varying degree a saving sense of the swwf Wm ridiculous. For six thousand years, the world has rolled on the wheels of fun and laughterg and thank heaven that it is so, for what a dreary place this gray old earth would be without humor Q to freshen it as the dew does each flower and leaf and blade Li lui! of grass! W5 5 ,,,,,5t:w,,, Yet in. spite of its universality as to time and place, humor REV ' ' r varies in its character accordingito the proportion of the ingred- ients that go to make it up: and this proportion, in its turn, de- pendsupon character and temperament. Hence we must not expect pompous John Bull to laugh himself or to make us laugh exactly after the manner of genial Irish Paddy or of our own droll Uncle Sam. In fact John is not too much given to laughter himself, though he has furnished the world plenty of mater- ial for jest and mirth. ln other words, the English nation as a whole is not noted for wit. albeit its literature boasts many writers who have given us much that is sparkling in thought and ludicrous in character and situation. English humor, of course, like that of every other country, smacks of the soil. Its chief element is incongruity, but this is mingled with a kind of racy mirthful belligerency that causes the giants of English fun to lay about them with joyous and indiscriminate activity. As might be expected, there is little pathos, though Shakespeare, Lamb and Dickens may be cited as notable exceptions. Unfortunately a spirit of coarseness and licentiousness for years disgraced English comedy and left its impress on the whole body of humorous literature of the nation, so that John Bull's fun is open to more serious charges than that of mere heaviness. A character almost opposite to that of ,lohn is dear old blundering Paddy whose foibles and eccentricities furnish us such infectious and hearty mirth-whose very name is in itself sufficient to provoke a laugh. With Paddy, to be ridiculous is quite natural, and though he never tries to be funny, he succeeds all the more effectually and deliciously. His wit is a part of himself-individual, imaginative, simple- It is DOI an extrayagance, an exaggeration, a jugglery with words. Broad and wild it may be, but rather by inward idea than by out- ward excess. Above all, Padrly's wit is most pleasing from its spontaneity. It bubbles out like a wild mountain stream which is set free from its Prison of ice by the assistance .of the sun and which, in its mad race down the r0ClCY g0Y8e- takes with lt Pebbles' Soil. CVCYYYMUS it can carry, to lege them in the great river below. The lrishman like the haggard checks at every feather, he lavs hold of life's abounding opportunities for rest and merriment. l-le is not a mere blundeyer .into fun nor yet one who makes clever speeches at so much a word: but when the opportunity comes, Paddy is right there. l'-lis humor is of the sunny, happy kind. nearly always mingled with love and sympathy and entirely devoid of bitterness and personal spite. ln fact he laughs just as heartily when the joke is on himself as when it is on others. Though Paddy has a firm and long standing reputation as a humorist, still there is a rival following closely upon his heels, and this is our own Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is a wide- 23 ' . . i . l .H -s, , T T ? make T

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