• Author: B-6594
• Editor: B-6591
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 2
• Page Number:
• Date: 10 1 1913
• Tags:
• advice

WHERE AND WHEN TO JOKE It is not everybody who knows where to joke, or when, or how; and whoever is ignorant of these conditions had better not joke at all. A gentleman never attempts to be humorous at the expense of people with whom he is but slightly acquainted. He would as soon board at their cost, or request them to frank him at their tailors. In fact, it is neither good manners nor wise policy to joke at anybody's expense; that is to say, to make anybody uncomfortable, merely to raise a laugh. A harmless jest may cut much deeper than a curse. Some men are so constituted that they cannot take even a friendly joke in good part, and instead of repaying it in the same light coin will requite it with contumely and insult. Never banter one of this class. Ridicule, at best, is a perilous weapon. Satire, however, when leveled at social follies and political evils, is not only legitimate, but commendable. It has shamed down more abuses than were ever abolished by force of logic. —B 6594.