Show 1 I TIMELY TOPICS I I MODERN HUMOR HUMO Student Students of literature and cultures ot oC our our- out times aver er that humor here heie and abroad In n the too last ten years ears has hM changed in Jn in character that tha It has b become come conie less fresh and less leg spontaneous further from the soil more cynical and blase a tired tired sort of ot mirth depending for its point on a sneer Ineer It might be cited too that sometimes it has t s something in it deeper than darkness For example a committee of chemists appointed b bj by the league league of nations Is Js now seriously undertaking to determine whether warfare with ith poisonous gases is or orlet's lets lees humane than the tile conventional means of ter tel with bayonet bullet and high explosive Early allY reports are that the committee is Inclined to favor chemical killers against uniformed troops troop with ith prohibitions prohibitions pro pro- o or of their use against unprotected communities com corn Humane in the tile Standard lexicon is defined as having the feeling and inclination creditable tomen to tomen tomen men having show showIng big or evidencing e a disposition to treat other human beings and animals with Kindness 01 or compassion kind bene benevolent humanizing exaltIng exaltIng exalting exalt exalt- ing and refining If It this is the measure of humanIty humanity humanity human human- ity the committee naturally will be entirely correct in concluding that dissolving a mans man's lung In lethal vapor Is quite as humane as blowing his head off with an Inch eight-Inch shell Humor in this interlude in history is tired and inclined to hopelessness because the people who produce it have lived JIved for years beneath the shadow shado I of tile Ufe most hideous jest in ill mans man's power to compose I match the devastating devastating devas devas- var What possible joKe jole can tating grimness of a cool scientific discussion of the relative humanity of various forms torms of murder murder- Marion Star A |