is too full of allusions and indirect references to all sorts of
extraneous facts. The English writer finds it hard to say a plain thing
in a plain way. He is too anxious to show in every sentence what a
fine scholar he is. He carries in his mind an accumulated treasure of
quotations, allusions, and scraps and tags of history, and into this,
like Jack Horner, he must needs "stick in his thumb and pull out a
plum." Instead of saying, "It is a fine morning," he prefers to write,
"This is a day of which one might say with the melancholy Jacques, it is
a fine morning."

Hence it is that many plain American readers find English humour
"highbrow." Just as the English are apt to find our humour "slangy" and
"cheap," so we find theirs academic and heavy. But the difference, after
all, is of far less moment than might be supposed. It lies only on the
surface. Fundamentally, as I said in starting, the humour of the two
peoples is of the same kind and on an equal level.

There is one form of humour which the English have more or less to
themselves, nor do I envy it to them. I mean the merriment that they
appear able to draw out of the criminal courts. To me a criminal court
is a place of horror, and a murder trial the last word in human tragedy.
The English criminal courts I know only from the newspapers and ask
no nearer acquaintance. But according to the newspapers the courts,
especially when a murder case is on, are enlivened by flashes of
judicial and legal humour that seem to meet with general approval. The
current reports in the Press run like this:

"The prisoner, who is being tried on a charge of having burned his
wife to death in a furnace, was placed in the dock and gave his name as
Evans. Did he say 'Evans or Ovens?' asked Mr. Justice Blank. The court
broke into a roar, in which all joined but the prisoner...." Or take
this: "How many years did you say you served the last time?" asked the
judge. "Three," said the prisoner. "Well, twice three is six," said the
judge, laughing till his sides shook; "so I'll give you six years."

I don't say that those are literal examples of the humour of the
criminal court. But they are close to it. For a judge to joke is as easy
as it is for a schoolmaster to joke in his class. His unhappy audience
has no choice but laughter. No doubt in point of intellect the English
judges and the bar represent the most highly trained product of
the British Empire. But when it comes to fun, they o