differs essentially from the ridiculous,—the former is adapted to raise laughter without scorn or contempt; the latter implies contempt or derision, and is designed to awaken mirth with some degree of contempt, being aimed at what is not only laughable but improper, absurd or despicable,-at the same time it expresses less than sarcasm. Sarcasm is a keen, reproachful expression, uttered with a greater degree of scorn or contempt. Ludicrous and sarcastic pieces include all jest, raillery, ridicule, mockery, irony, scorn or contempt. Both styles require long circumflex slides and compound abrupt stress, long quantity, and pauses on the emphatic words. Good-natured jest or raillery should have a higher pitch, faster time, and purer quality than belongs to sarcasm, which should have the median pitch, aspirated quality and rather slow time. With both kinds the force changes from moderate to louder with the boldness of the spirit. ried Pair..... A Helpmate.... American Corn...... An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog. Oliver Goldsmith. An Idyl of the Period..... A Darkey's Counsel to a Newly-mar American Aristocracy. 177 Aunty Doleful's Visit... Deitsche Advertisement.. Duluth....... French and English. Half Way Doin's.. Handy Andy at the Postoffice.. Hotspur's Description of a Fop... Irish Aristocracy... Jupiter and Ten. Language.. Laughing in Meeting.. Leedle Yacob Strauss. Little Breeches .. Lodgings for Single Gentlemen.. .Charles T. Wolfe... 7. Proctor Knott, Thomas Hood. Irwin Russell. .Samuel Lover.. Wm. Shakespeare.. ..Charles G. Halpine...... 103 Miss Edith Helps Things Along.... .Bret Harte.. 290 Mahsr John...... Mein Vamily. 317 Popping Corn..... .Anonymous 349 Pickwick's Proposal to Mrs. Bardell..... Charles Dickens. Reverie in Church... .Chas. A. Baker, Fr...... 281 Rev. Gabe Tucker's Remarks.........Anonymous That Aged Stranger. The Ballad of the Oyster Man.. The Courtin'... The Editor..... The Fashionable School Girl.... The Geography Demon.. The Jolly Old Crow...... The Nantucket Skipper.. The Schoolmaster's Guests.... 309 47 THE subject of elocution is confessedly an all important one to the American people-the love of Oratory is inherent in Americans-they have felt its influence as no other people have, and realize the part it has performed in the formation and character of the Republic. Prof. Whitman has well said that "it was oratory that made us a free and independent people, oratory that determined the qual ity of man, oratory that settled all the important questions of the past, and oratory that must mark the future weal or woe of the American nation-a nation which, it is no exaggeration to say-excells all others in the splendor of her renown, ' even as one star excelleth another star in glory." Hon. Frank Gilbert in his Introduction to Prof. Whitman's book, says: "In no other country have orators and oratory played so important a part in shaping public affairs as in this country, the rea son is, that nowhere else has free speec! been enjoyed with absolute thoroughnes.. Every other land either is, or has been cursed by a despotism which dared not give reign to the tongue. Oratory cannot flourish under tyranny."-The oratory of this Republic is one of the great treasures of literature. Fig. 1. Our Republican institutions are of such a character as to call for and encourage a practice of not only impromptu and well finished and studied oratory, but a demand for good elocutionists, capable of instituting an intelligent inquiry into the meaning of an author; and, having obtained it, that it may be conveyed not only correctly, but with force, beauty, variety and effect, requiring the speaker to impress the exact lineaments of nature upon his sentiments, such indeed, is the imperative demand for the services. of elocutionists of every class, that excellence in the art is a sure road to financial remuneration as well as civil and political preferment. Fig. 2. The general inaptitude to extemporaneous addresses of |