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Show JOHi BULL'S HUMOR. It Is of tbe Fat Witted Kind What Ajp icr.ns Think of It. Hawthorne, observing Englishmen in England, speaks of them as "heavy witted." Emerson alludes to theii "saving stupidity. " Howells has introduced intro-duced to ns some typical specimens of English respectability and rank baffled In their chase after American humor, but on the scent and arriving at the point of appreciation after considerable silent thought, sometimes lasting into the next day, and here is the testimony of Lowell fiyim his recently published "Letters. " In a letter written in 1889 from England to Professor Norton ha thus explains the warm reception given to Bnffalo'Bill by London society: "But I think the true key to this eagerness, for lions even of the poodle eort is the dullness of the average English mind. I never come back hera without being struck with it Henry James said it always stupefied him at first when he came back from the continent. con-tinent. What it craves beyond everything every-thing is wnsation, anything that will serve as a Worcestershire sance to sluggish palate, We, of finer and more touchy fiber, get our sensations cheaper and do not find Wordsworth's emotion over a common flower so very wonderful. wonder-ful. People are dull enough on our side of the ocean stream also, God wot, but here unless I know my people I nevei dare to let my mind gambol. Most oi them, if I ever do, look on like the famous fa-mous deaf man at the dancers, wondering wonder-ing to what musio I am capering. They callus superficial, iet us thank God, dear Charles, that our nerves are nearer the surface, not so deeply embedded in fat or muscle that wit must take a pitchfork pitch-fork to us." Outlook. |
