The Nature Of
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1934.
Laughter
ENTERTAINING SPEECH BY PROF.
FORSTER AT ROTARY CLUB
Modern Demand For Laughter.
Professor L Forster gave an interesting and highly amusing address to members of the Rotary Club yesterday. when he chose as his subject "The Nature of Laughter."." The speaker traced the origin of laughter from man's earliest days down to the present time and the address was profusely sprinkled with examples of wit and humour.
Mr. T. B. Wilson presided over the gathering and amongst other thing, announced that Canton Rotary Club would be holding a dinner dance of June 16, to celebrate the first an niversary of their Chatter.
Difficulties Of A A Speech
Maker
"Professor Forster said:-The form; Bergson says,
of address most acceptable especi- controlled by ally in the hot weather is one thut has humorous character, for lunch hours are especially periods of relaxation and not occasiona It is not for serious meditation. only Rotary however, which de- mands this light mental refresh- ment. but at least the whole Eng- lish speaking world. It is humor- ists like F. G. Wodehouse who earn collosal fees; while serious writers starve, and it is Punch which flourishes while the Athen-
of the
ing made is even in the best of circumstances that is when be khows lils work, m a very inferior and exposed position. The "stud- ent's unusual conndence and his complete indifference in a situation where considerable fear is usually shown completely reverses the position. The examiner s there to expose the ignorance of the examinee and the comic turn which the proceedings take is due to the examinee becoming the ex- aminer and revealing the limita- tlons of the supposed omniscient questioner who is thus toppled from his throne upon which he is - sitting without, apparently, much justification. In every such in- stance there is an element of the universal implied in such laughter. It is not this particular case of pretentiousness that is condemned but every similar case. Such laughter is on the side of virtue-- the virtue of sincerity and against vice the vice of sham and pre- tence.
We laugh then because we wish
use is
MR. STONE IN WITNESS
52
BOX
ENQUIRY INTO GAS WORKS DISASTER
What Happened After The
Explosion
That No. 13 Chang Shing Street was well alight within 60 seconds of the collapse of the gasometer and before Clarence Terrace was on fire. was the view expressed by Mr. H. E. Stone, the general manager and chief engineer of the Hongkong and China Gas Co., Ltd. at Central Magistracy" yesterday when the Coroner's enquiry into the terrible gas explosion disaster at West Point on the morning of May 14, was continued."."
Mr. Stone rave w ́detailed account of the operations of the Company before' and 'immediately after the explosion, and ex-- pressed the opinion that the damage to the holder was at a point directly opposite No. 13, Chung Shing Street. Mr. Stone will continue his evidence this afternoon.
Like A Typhoon Going On
Mr. E. W. Hamilton sat as flames. She looked into the cook- Coroner assisted by a special jury house and saw volumes of flames comprising Messrs. P. Tester (fore shooting out. She first saw the man). L Dunbär and D. Drum-4ames in the cookhouse and then
at the doorway. has mond,
not
damaged.
to correct an undesirable tendency In social life, one to which we our- and ceases to be selves are not predisposed. It is
will are his ownE
thought, however, that such not cover calculated to provoke laughter in explanation does
all some people.
cases, for all laughter is not meant to correct a deviation from the "Is The Old `Bean Dizzy""
normal. There are several writers The next step up is on the
who think that even the most re- intellectual plane, though some
Aned and delicate laughter would doubt whether the pun was
Mr. W. A. Mackinlay, of Messrs comething malicious and sinister 2 grade higher than the humour behind it. There is an element of Deacons, represented the Hong- custard pie which the sadism in all of us for we enjoy kong and China Gas Co., Ltd, and comedian gets in his face. At the contemplation of
suffering Mr. W. M. Brown, of Messrs. Hast- any rate the youth who practises though it be only in imaginationings and Co. watched the proceed this. form of humour fortunately the primitive in
ings on behalf of certain property soon grows out of it. Next to that eliminated, it is merely refined to owners. whose property was aeum. the Nation, and the Werk but a good deal higher I should meet the requirements of civilised End Review go into liquidation. A place that form of humour known society. We conjure up particu- dally paper cannot sell now unless as the "Spoonerism." as an exam-larly gruesome cases and laugh
ple of which we might take the over them just as the old lady en it has its comic strip or its column of humour to which the readers Curate in a state of nervous ten-
joys her murder of a cup of tea. Ludovici links laughter and the turn almost before they consider slon who stands at the door anything else. A newspaper Uke
involves, with the similar display display of teeth which it always the Morning Post'. In England is of its politics but because of its humour: our local papers have kept pace with the needs of the times. Modern advertisements, if they are to leave their deepest impression must appeal to the Tisible faculty. We cannot but re- member the two headed monster which with one mouth Bay “SH" and with the other "HELL." 29 1 particularly fast motor car passes on the way to Knock Less. The whole thing is so extraordinarily clever, topical and really funny.
of
the Dean's house and says to the
A 18-year old girl, Leung Mul said that at the time of the ex- was sitting on the plosion she counter at No: 2. Clarence Terrace,
ground door, which was a grocery, shop. She heard a bang and th mediately saw dames looming into the shop. The flames were at first all over the floor but later began
Mr.
Mr. Stone's Story.
"Bro. M. Testa and Bro. T. Metteri of the St. Louis Industrial to rise. She escaped by the hack- School, on being recalled, both
door. Said that the first thing they heard was a noisé, followed by flames, The former added that he first the earth. He did not at anytime felt something like a movement of
ari explosion.
M.IGE, A.M.I.M.E., general mana
Harold Edmund Stone.
Hongkong and China Gas Co., ger and chief engineer of the
widely read to-day, not because Then we come to the verbál jest which the animal makes when it hear anything which sounded like ad.. then gave evidence. He said.
interesting!
is threatened. The gleaming teeth are the animais arsenal of wea- pons, its equipment for
and War for survival in the struggle for existence. They are the means by which it, makes a claim to super- for adaptation and their object is to frighten the enemy or opponent off, just as in the many cases the object of laughter is to intimidate or humiliate.
When Wong Kan Luk, a lad. also of the Industrial School was recalled, the Coroner asked him to give his evidence in story form at the same time instructing the Interpreter to take it down in writing As a result of this, his evidence, was not interpreted, for he spoke in Chinele, and conse- quently, with the exception of the Jury and the Coroner, who read the statement afterwards, his evi- dence could not be gauged by other interested parties, and Mr. Mackinlay had to apply for a copy of the statement.
that he was formerly an engineer in the City of Birmingham Gas Department and later chief en gineer of the Borough of Birken- head Gas Department.
Detalling the operations of the ing the Hongkong side there was Combaby, Mr. Stone said that tak the main works at West Point. In" the north side of Queen's Road were the general amces arid manufacturing plant. On the south side was the gasometer and the water gas plant.
servant. "Is the old Bean dizzy?" which varies in quality according to its subtlety and its thought- provoking power. It generally de- pends on the juxta-position of a serious and solemn element and a frivolous onė, the two aspects often being condensed in the same word as is so frequently illustrat- ed In Punch. "And what are you doing up at Oxfärd?" "Oh, Mod- era Greats" "How And do you design them yourself?” Perhaps the best example of dou-
"Never Heard Hlow Langh" ble or treble meaning imparted With the increasing use of ex- into a phrase, however, is providedternal weapons, spears, arrows Demand For Laughter
by a classical scholar of Trinity axes and such things the showing
At Wanchai were two small Why is there such a demand for College, Dublin, who was asked by of teeth became for man merely
holders connected by a main to laughter at the present time? Is a successful but illiterate tobacco | a means of showing superior adap-
the West Pojiit works.
These It because we are in the trough manufacturer to provide him with ❘tation. In support of his view he
Like A Typhoon.
holders fed the Peak and, to some of economic depression and in a a motto for the crest he had cho- quotes authorities who frown upon Shek Kong, formerly resided at extent, that end of the town, post war state of disillusionment? sen, and which he wished to put laughter as an undesirable vestige No. 13. Chung Shing Street, ground
At Kowloon, the works were in Is it because the longed for mil-on his carriage. He suggested of our animal ancestry.
floor told the Court that on the Jordan Road, Thefe were two lenfum has not been realised that "Quid Rides." In Latin this means Chesterfield, for example. says, " morning of the explosion, he was gasofmeters, one of them was built we turn to cynicism and laughter What are you laughing at?" Sec-
am neither of a melancholy nor an the cookhouse. At about 111923. He could not say how and not to tears Do we laugh. ondly Quid of course means an cynical disposition, and Am as o'clock. he heard a loud explosion | old were the otheïs. One of the as Byron says, because we do not English sovereign, Thirdly it mesas willing and as apt to be pleased like that of a cannon. The win-holders in Wanchal was very old wish to cry? Do we seize the ex-a plece of tobacco for chewing. es anybody, but I am sure that daws were shattered and frag- ¦ and the one In West Point was cuse for laughing in order to con- So in these two words you have since I have had the full use of
ments of glass fell down as if a the biggest.
As he the West Point works was in terbalance the excessive demand at least four meanings 1, What my reason nobody has over heard typhoon were going on. for "sympathy which observation are, you laughing at? 3. Tobacco įme laugh."
thought the House was about to change bf Mr. D: Marshall, who of the facts around us, and sober rides in state.
Money made
collapse, he fled but as he left the had his quarters there. Mr. Nichol- reflection on them would require out of tobacco rides in state, and
cookhouse, he noticed some smoke son was in charge of the Kowloon us to express? Are we like the 4, A pound a ride.
followed immediately by flames, dide. man "approaching bankruptcy who
The smoke came from the gaso-Mr. Goodwin, his chief assistant. goes in for a wild orgy of extrava-
meter behind the wall. Cooking exercised his supervision over both, gance just to try and prove that
was being done in the cookhouse but he spent more time at West at the time. He then fainted and Point than at Kowloon. There was he is really well off?...
Whatever the real cause
and
the real nature of laughter to-day there is little doubt that its an- cestry is not quite respectable. Listen to what George Ellot has to say about it "Strange as the
3.
What then, we may ask is the purpose of laughter? According
Horse or Kangaroo?
Lord
There is little doubt that the greatest iterature is not prevoca- tive of laughter. One" would look vein for a joke in the New Tes- tament or in the Old; who could
fell on the floor. He was suffoe- no European stationed at Wan- ated by the smoke.
chal but it was visited from the ofaces In reply to Mr. Mackinlay, wit-West Point works. ness said that he thought the ex- were down in West Point and his plosion came from the other side management duties were carried
out there.
of the wall arewood.
What do you use for cooking?-
..:
The Explosion,
?
to some writers, of whom Bergson ever imagine Christ laughing says is one, it is a form of social Lammenais, Iri Confucius and chastisement, a lash or a discip-Mencius there is no suggestion of lining of those who seek to alter galety and laughter. Shakespeare's the status quo. and is therefore finest work is not in his comedies directed against those who refuse for the brevity which-wit and to conform to the accepted way humour require does not afford of life. This is very largely the scope for long passages of sustain function which Pinch discharges ed beauty. "Mollera's finest work genealogy of laughter may seem, the original
that when It exaggerates a situation is in Le Misanthrope and Tartuffe parentage of
Do you use kerosene at all?—No. Referring to the explosion, Mr., wonderful and delicious mixture of and piliories it in a sarcastic, man-
where he is least funny.
How is the house lighted nor- Stone said: On May 14, I say fun, fancy, philosophy and feeling ner
The point is that in serious mat-maily?-By electric lights.
shortly before 11 o'clock but I am which constitutes modern humour
ters a man must be serious: there Shek Kam, the sister of the not going to dispute that, the was probably the cruel mockery Or. take the case of the Univer- can be no compromise and no previous witness, said that she was West Point gasometer collapsed, I of a savage at the writhing of a sity student who was up for ayielding to the requirements of in the second cubicle when she was in the office at the time, and
""Vive Vace" examination before a convention. Had 'Wilbur and Or- suffering enemy-such is the ten-
heard a bang-As she was com- my attention was attracted by a dency of things towards the bet dozen of his lecturers and profes-ville Wright and such pioneers ing out of the cubicle she saw dull roar. I looked out of the ter and the more beautiful." The sors. The subject was physiology been intimidated by the jokes
window and saw a mass or volume next step upward in "the pro- about which he knew as much as which were made about their new
of burning gas sweeping over the cess of evolution of laughter is other students do who have done method of committing suicide, we
carried in that direction by the the contemplation of another's no work. He merely knew that should have had no flying to-day, many other idiotic excrescences in end portion of Clarence Terrace, physical scomfiture, as in the not even a miracle could put bins Ludovici asserts that the English the community.
strong wind which was blowing at a chair is through, so he had no fear of any and American humourist for ex The opinion practical joke, when
that laughter that time. The place I was stand- swept away just as a man is going sort. The Inquisitor wished to ample, takes every serious reform-physiologically related to the dis-ing give a clear view of that to sit down, or when a dignified know which animals have theer metaphorically aside and ad-play of teeth which the animal portion of Clarence Terrace. person has to chase his hat, caraesophagus so constructed that dresses his as follows, "My dear makes when attacked and psycho-could see the gasonicter but I did ried off by the wind. Sir Frank they can swallow but cannot expel fellow, are you sure you are not logically to the gloating of the hot hotice it at that time. I im- Benson once was going to give an food that way. The examiner ex- taking this stunt of yours much savage over an enemy's physical mediately left the office and went excerpt from ane of Shakespeare's pected to get the stereotyped an- too seriously? It's all very well but suffering does not of course de- to the portion of the works at more Serious plays, when in-ad-
awer of the horse, but instead of just show you have a sense of tract from its importance to-day the south side in Queen's Road vancing to the middle of the stage that the wholly ignorant examinee" humour: don't be so damned cer- as a vehicle of a more refined emo-
Where I noticed the gasometer had he tripped over his sword which boldly answered-"the Kangaroo." tain that you are right. Don't be tioc. Many noble and beautiful deflated. I climbed on top of the was part of his dress for the oc- Doubtful about this case and yet so ridiculously earnest and you'll things have humble, origins like holder which was ust settling casion, and in spite of an effort, not wishing to give himself away find you will be able to laugh at the lotus which emerges from the down, and walked across the top which he continued "for
five before his brothers, the physiologist your present comle gravity and mud and slime. Neither does it to about the centre which was the minutes, to get the audience to played for safety. "Yes, yes," he the world will laugh with you in-follow that because laughter is ab-highest part of the gasometer. listen to his solemn discourse, he said "but what about the horse?"stead of at "you."
used by some that it is not of 1 noticed that the fronta of the completely falled. The admixture"Well," persisted the student re- Had the greatest reformers, pro- valus. The abuse of a thing does houses in Clarence Terrace were of the ridiculous and the sublime cognising doubt and enjoying the phets and teachers heen swayed not take away Its right use. It on fire. I noticed also that house. was too much in fact the latter torturer's discomnture, "but what by such laughter there would have may be an instrument for self- No. 13. in Chung Shing Street was made the former all the more ridf-about the kangargo?" You feel been little progress. On the other assertion or for showing superior well alight, the re being situated culous so that the audience could that the situation is wholly, at the hand it might well be argued that adaptation, but it must always re- the heart of the premises on the not stop laughing. All clowning, beginning, in favour of the exam without the wholesome correction main man's best means of express-top door. My attention was parti- fooling horse play and the occainer. who is in a position of super- of laughter we should have beening the emotion of joy. ~cularly drawn to these premises as sions when a person behaves iority and that the student, against burdened with even more eccentric The pester was thanked on the rigidly
mechanically, as whom the combined attack in be- cranks than we have and with motion of Rotarian P. S. Cassidy.
(Continued on Page 11)
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