Word: witnesses
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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Engineeringy is good! Moreover, it is only one of those words which impart such a vague flavor of Physics and Mathematics to the whole number. The column headed "Spectrum Lines" shows conclusively that the editor's "lines have not fallen in pleasant places," for the wit and point in its jokes are carefully concealed. In other respects the paper is quite commendable...
...something funny : but witticisms are coy birds and fly high; few are able to capture them at will, or furnish them to order. In nine cases out of ten, wearied with his fruitless endeavors, he descends to a lower plane, makes use of vulgarity, and passes it off for wit. Some, as we have before hinted, seem unable to distinguish between the genuine and the spurious article; others there are who, from their moral status, seem incapable of appreciating anything genuine, who derive their intellectual nourishment almost exclusively from trashy literature. Among these our writer, provided his production gains publicity...
...since it is so difficult to be witty, are we to give up the attempt, and devote ourselves to a style of composition as devoid of humor as a statute-book? Certainly not. If we have not the wit to elicit an appreciative smile from our readers, we at least have the ability to throw into our expressions a certain degree of spiciness and originality; otherwise we had better cast our quill aside, and turn our thoughts to other pursuits...
Like beauty ill-attired, our humor clothed in uncouth and meaningless phrases is undiscovered. True, with our limited experience, and wit perhaps, we can hardly expect our efforts to bear even a favorable comparison with the elaborately finished work of a Holmes or Warner, whose humor seldom offends in essence or expression; yet if we would succeed at all in this vein, our style, like theirs, must be characterized by simplicity and elegance, our productions must possess pith and raciness...
...effect of a humorous story than ill-restrained laughter on the part of the narrator. If a writer would divest his article of all poignancy, he has only to show by his repetitions and redundant expressions that he is fully impressed with a conviction of his own mighty wit, and fearful that his readers will fail to discover...