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Show On Taking: a Joke. A severely Judicial attitude toward one's self is not easy, and very few attain at-tain to It, Many good, and von great, men suffer from or should we rather say enjoy? a measure of self-love during dur-ing the whole of their useful lives. To he able to take pleasure ln a Joke against one's self Js a very rare quality, rarer than It seems, for many people pretend; and this Is one of tho pretences of which any honest man may be proud, just as ho may be proud not to show any form of pain. Those who can really enjoy it are almost always popular. But to say that that Is the reason of their popularity, popular-ity, is to mistake cause and effect. They always feel themselves to be among friends. Consequently the public who witness their discomfiture are a prejudiced preju-diced public, whose laughter le exceed- Ingly kind, and who feel more at homo with their favorite beca"use they perceive per-ceive his fallings. It sounds Ill-natured, but wo think it must be admitted that, to see some one else "put hlo foot In it" Is. provided wo are ln no way responsible, for him, sometimes pleasant for a moment. mo-ment. Then comes a sudden sense of thankfulness Into the mind of the spectator spec-tator that It was not himself who has done it. Thcro is a story of two old Scotswomen landing from a ferryboat which will illustrate our meaning. One stepped safely upon the shore, but the boat moved 'as the second put her foot on the gangw ay, and she slipped and got wet. "Eh! what a Providence It was her and no me," exclaimed the one upon the bank. The expression was instinctive, instinc-tive, and hardly, perhaps, blameworthy. A moment's thankfulness as we note a conversational false step may be Inevitable, Inevi-table, but ridicule should be sparingly indulged ln. Too much laughing over such Incidents Is, in our experience, dangerous. dan-gerous. Retribution often overtakes the scoffer in the guise of a like mistake. On the same theory, while it may be occasionally oc-casionally justifiable to give a snub, it is never well to gloat over it. The snubbed ono may turn the other cheek, but fate very often avenges the helpless. This may be a social superotltlon, but It Is wonderful how often it fits the facts. The Spectator. J |