Quaker Anecdotes (review)

40 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION treatment of many subsidiary characters, apparently to add romantic interest , creates the impression that she is following the pattern of a work of fiction rather than the requirements of a serious biography. There is no space here to enumerate the many errors in historical fact that appear in this book. The author displays insufficient knowledge of the historical setting to give us perspective on White's actual importance . Rather she accepts at their face value his own estimates of himself , and his rather narrow views of the affairs of the period. In a book dealing largely with the development of transportation, not a single map is presented, and there are no diagrams nor even adequate descriptions of such technical devices as the "bear trap lock" or the "switchback railroad." Josiah White was not the greatest pioneer of his age, as Eleanor Morton implies, but he was important enough to deserve a good biography . It is still to be written. Swarthmore CollegeTheodore Paullin Quaker Anecdotes. Collected and Arranged by Irvin C. Foley and Ruth Verlenden Poley. Wallingford, Pennsylvania, Pendle Hill, 1946. 57 pp. Fifty cents. TT IS nearly sixteen years since Constance Rourke, one of the most talented of modern American critics, published American Humor, the first serious study of our native humorous perception. With characteristic insight she gave her book the sub-title, "A Study of the National Character." Nothing reveals the temperament of a people more sharply than its humor, as anyone can testify who glances into the "funny papers" of a country foreign to him. Miss Rourke properly made a great point of the regional characteristics in our native humor, for people living together in an environment commonly shared will come to look at things from the same angle ; and their humor, which after all generally results from their sense of proportion, will he influenced by the points of view which seem to them to be in normal adjustment, hence not humorous. "Jack Downing," "Sam Slick," and "Hosea Biglow" were as unmistakably down-east as Augustus B. Longstreet and Joel Chandler Harris were Southern, or Mark Twain was of the Western frontier. One seeks in vain for Quaker humor in Miss Rourke's account. The sobriety and seriousness of early Friends is so firmly established in the popular mind that no historian outside the Society would be likely to investigate Quaker life in connection with humor. Friends know better. One of the remarkable characteristics of the community of American Quakerism, particularly in the last half-century, has been the rich and quiet stream of humor that runs beneath the surface of life and conversation , and emerges with picturesque results in the private lives and friendships of some of the most serious and devoted of Friends. Vol. 36, Spring 1947 BRIEFER NOTICES41 The "Quaker Anecdotes" which Irvin and Ruth Poley have here collected have a certain consistency, for the humor of Friends, like that of a geographical region, is rendered homogeneous by commonly shared experiences and viewpoints which unite Friends everywhere, although they are so widely dispersed. There are anecdotes which arise from such testimonies as plainness of speech or dress, non-resistance, simplicity, toleration, or even the inner light. There are a number of excellent stories which originate in that independence of character, sometimes to the point of eccentricity, which furnishes its delightful, amusing, and often beloved individuals in almost every Quaker community. There are of course many stories about the misunderstanding of Quaker customs by non-Friends, such as the familiar story of the dinner guest in the home of Friends who was embarrassed by "an awkward silence" at the beginning of the meal, and "just told a funny story to break the ice." But the temptation to repeat these anecdotes must be resisted here. They are being widely repeated already, and the reader will have heard many of them in conversation since this volume began to circulate. The only remedy available to any Friend under these circumstances is to procure a copy of the book so that he may retaliate. The compilers have done Friends a service by bringing these anecdotes together in a jolly little volume. The University of...