ds!"

The written humor of the Dutch does not usually make a very strong
appeal to us. They are inclined to be ponderous even in their play, and
lack in great measure the sarcasm and satire and the lighter subtlety in
fun-making. History records a controversy between Holland and Zealand,
which was argued pro and con during a period of years with great
earnestness. The subject for debate that so fascinated the Dutchmen was:
"Does the cod take the hook, or does the hook take the cod?"

Because British wit and humor often present themselves under aspects
somewhat different from those preferred by us, we belittle their efforts
unjustly. As a matter of fact, the British attainments in this direction
are the best in the world, next to our own. Moreover, in the British
colonies is to be found a spirit of humor that exactly parallels our own
in many distinctive features. Thus, there is a Canadian story that might
just as well have originated below the line, of an Irish girl, recently
imported, who visited her clergyman and inquired his fee for marrying.
He informed her that his charge was two dollars. A month later, the girl
visited the clergyman for the second time, and at once handed him two
dollars, with the crisp direction, "Go ahead and marry me."

"Where is the bridegroom?" the clergyman asked.

"What!" exclaimed the girl, dismayed. "Don't you furnish him for the two
dollars?"

It would seem that humor is rather more enjoyable to the British taste
than wit, though there is, indeed, no lack of the latter. But the people
delight most in absurd situations that appeal to the risibilities
without any injury to the feelings of others. For example, Dickens
relates an anecdote concerning two men, who were about to be hanged at a
public execution. When they were already on the scaffold in preparation
for the supreme moment, a bull being led to market broke loose and ran
amuck through the great crowd assembled to witness the hanging. One of
the condemned men on the scaffold turned to his fellow, and remarked:

"I say, mate, it's a good thing we're not in that crowd."

In spite of the gruesome setting and the gory antics of the bull, the
story is amusing in a way quite harmless. Similarly, too, there is only
wholesome amusement in the woman's response to a vegetarian, who made
her a proposal of marriage. She did, not mince her words:

"Go along with you! What? Be flesh of your flesh, and you a-living on
cabbage? Go marry a g