the rest."
(Laughing) "Well, she may have killed herself; but if she did
it's a sure thing that some one else came along after and
chopped her up." "That policeman must have been a fool.
(Explain.) To think that she could chop herself into eighteen
pieces."

_Unsatisfactory._ "_Think_ that she killed herself; they _know_
she did." "They can't be sure. Some one may have killed her."
"It was a foolish girl to kill herself." "How can they tell who
killed her?" "No girl would kill herself unless she was crazy."
"It ought to read: 'They think that she committed suicide.'"

(d) _The railroad accident_

_Satisfactory._ "That was very serious." "I should like to know
what you would call a serious accident!" "You could say it was
not serious if two or three people were killed, but
forty-eight,--that is serious."

_Unsatisfactory._ "It was a foolish mistake that made the
accident." "They couldn't help it. It was an accident." "It
might have been worse." "Nothing foolish; it's just sad."

(e) _The bicycle rider_

_Satisfactory._ "How could he get well after he was already
killed?" "Why, he's already dead." "No use to take a dead man to
the hospital." "They ought to have taken him to a grave-yard!"

_Unsatisfactory._ "Foolish to fall off of a bicycle. He should
have known how to ride." "They ought to have carried him home.
(Why?) So his folks could get a doctor." "He should have been
more careful." "Maybe they can cure him if he isn't hurt very
bad." "There's nothing foolish in that."

REMARKS. The detection of absurdities is one of the most ingenious and
serviceable tests of the entire scale. It is little influenced by
schooling, and it comes nearer than any other to being a test of
that species of mother-wit which we call common sense. Like the
"comprehension questions," it may be called a test of judgment, using
this term in the colloquial and not in the logical sense. The stupid
person, whether depicted in literature, proverb, or the ephemeral joke
column, is always (and justly, it would seem) characterized by a huge
tolerance for absurd contradictions and by a blunt sensitivity for the
fine points of a joke. Intellectual discrimination and judgment are
inferior. The ideas do not cross-light each other, but remain relatively
isolated. Hence, the most absurd contradictions are swallowed, so to
speak, without arousing t