No 34 - December 1937 - Southgate County School

Southgate County School Magazine 41
whose depths of Divinity were being probed by four examiners,
who failed to extract a single accurate answer from him. At
last one of them asked him to quote any text that he could
remember, and his eye brightened as he looked the examiners
in their faces, and said, " And I saw before me four great
beasts!"
Psychologists tell us that we must express all our emotions
in some way or other. How then do we express our humorous
feelings? As I have shown, some express them by collecting
humorous anecdotes. But a real humorist must express his feelings
in a more personal way. This some do in cartoons and
here again we can compare the typical cartoons of different
nations. Most American cartoons are of the red-nosed comedian
type and rather childish; the average French cartoon is vulgar;
the Teutonic • and Russian cartoons are generally clumsy and
brutal. Now look at English cartoons. How are they characterised?
By subtlety and satire—especially satire. How the
cartoonist loves to laugh at the weaknesses and the pettiness of
mankind! With a few deft strokes of the pen he reveals the
cleverest subterfuge of the wiliest politician.
If you buy a cheap edition of the works of Charles Dickens
you miss a great deal of pleasure. For it will not include the
ingenious sketches of his colleague, George Cruikshank, better
known as " Phiz," whose shrewed insight into human character
is manifested in his drawings. Look at that sketch of the inimitable
Mr. Pecksniff. There he sits enthroned in his armchair
with his " two charming daughters " on either side. His finger
tips are placed together, his legs elegantly crossed, as he moralizes
for the benefit of the apologetic Tom Pinch, giving us a full
view of his smug, self-satisfied, sanctimonious face. What a
master hand drew that suggestive sketch! One sees Dickens'
humour in the very names he gives to his characters—the hypocritical
Mr. Pecksniff, the rotund jovial Pickwick, the drinkbesotted
Sary Gamp.
Those who are gifted with the pen express their humour in
stories, and essays and verse. Who are the greatest English
humorists? It is impossible to mention them all in one short
article and to be quite truthful I don't know them all. But there
are a few who are particularly outstanding and even I have heard
of them.
There is Jerome K. Jerome who has given us that absurd,
gently satirical, witty, ludicrous and amazingly funny tale of
'' Three Men in a Boat ''—and such men ! Dear George ! and who
has ever met or ever will meet again a more humorous dog
than the melancholy Montmorehcy? So if when coming to
school by train you should see the gentleman in the corner
shaking with silent laughter, you need not assume that he is
necessarily insane. Just glance at the title of his book. If it is
" Three Men in a Boat " you may be sure that he is reading
about the cheese incident or how the butter got lost and was
found eventually at the back of George's trousers.