Time for Comedy

Italy has had a visible sense of humor, from the time of the commedia dell 'arte. Italians can still crack jokes (however unoriginal) about their miseries. From Lisbon last week New York Times Correspondent Herbert L. Matthews, on his way home from Rome, sent revealing samples: > Benito Mussolini visited a fortuneteller who told him that he would die on the eve of Italy's greatest holiday. She was unable to tell him just which day that was. When he asked his wife her opinion, she replied: "I know. It's the day after you die."

> The Duce died and went to heaven. He received a great ovation and noticed that his crown was even taller than God's. God explained: "I gave your people one day of fasting a week. You gave them seven. I gave them faith and you took it away. You are a greater man than I am."

> Mussolini and Foreign Minister Count Ciano, it is said, arranged a little stunt to impress U.S. Ambassador William Phillips, who was about to return to Washington to report on Italian conditions. While the Duce was receiving the Ambassador, Count Ciano rushed in with a cooked-up piece of good news: "Duce! Duce! Twenty-eight ships loaded with wheat have just arrived . . . our granaries are simply bursting. Where can we put all this wheat?"

The Duce pondered the problem.

Ambassador Phillips quietly suggested: "Duce, why don't you put it in your bread?"

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