NATIONAL HUMOUR,
Tuts is a book about humour written by a Scotsman- The chapter " Scottish Humour "is amusing ; so is that on " Welsh Humour" and that on "Irish Humour." When the author turns to English humour he becomes instructive and very-dull (dissertating historically upon humorists); and he does not, in our judgment, know anything about Cockney humour. He is not even at home in the Cockney dialect. The chapter about American humour also fails to amuse us. But while be repeata stories of Celts and Lowland Scotsmen he narrates delight- fully. Here is a typical story:— "A country minister who, though a good man, was notoriously defective and hesitating in his style of delivery in the pulpit, was sitting having a cup of tea with one of the old spinsters connected with his congregation, when be observed that the spout of the teapot was either choked or too narrow. Your teapot, sties Kennedy,' he remarked, •d-d-disna—dimut tin wool' • Ay, just like yoursoe, Mr. Broom,' retorted the nettled lady. "It has an unco pair delivery.'"
Highland humour seems a little too grim for ordinary tastes. Seat as Lowland laughter plays around the eubject of religion, so Highland humour seems unable to get away from the thought of death. Welsh humour, as here represented, is far more sprightly. The man who described the effort to combat prejudice as " trying to put water into a bottle with a cork in it" was truly witty. Judged, tmuch of the Welsh humour which Mr. Macrae quotes is, correctly speaking, wit. Take the following. A poor man named Coslett "applied to the Quarter Sessions for a licence to preach. One of the magis- trates, noticing his extremely rustic and unkempt appearance, exclaimed with surprise.' What! you preach I God help you 'Amen,' said Corlett"—and obtained the licence.
The strange good sense which appears occasionally at the back of a witty Irishman's verbal nonsense is well illustrated on the following sentence spoken by an Irishwoman to her sea : "Now, my boy, don't be always doing something else."
NatitaaI Hanauer faxatith. litmant. enema. Amanita. By
1...Th. 41 Macrae. WithIllvateatievelo Jelm Dam. raisley ..Gazdnev. eas..41
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