The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-05-18
Tne statute ofsOlemnisy.

Mr.. John Owens, the clever creator Of
the inimitsble Yankee character of So
lon SEingIe, is just about TO leave the coun-
try, we see, and take refuge in England
He goes not one day too soon, for the
Great and General Court of Msssachu-
settsn have put rod in pickle for him,
whereby, should he venture to remain
within reach of the came, his life would
soon be made burden to him. That emil
nent body have passed an act forbidding
the licenciDg of sDy exhibition intended
OF calculated TO bring any person into rldl-
cule or contempt on account OF his race or
color,n The transparent fetch of pre-
tended regard for the African implied IN
The use here of the word "cOlor" Is eXcusl-
BILE but Intellectual. All the world will at
once perceive that the real object Of this
statute is 70 suppress the traditional stage
Yankee, with his short-wAisted, swallow
tailed coat, his high-riding striped trowsers,
his brass -buttoned, fAbby-waisted vest his
sidewise crs7st, his fluffy bulging hat.
The "gsyety of nations" was scipsed by
the death of Gsrrick. The gufsW of 8
continent is to be sileneed by this marvel
Gus statute of Massachusetts. -a -1p 3
The Sultan Shah Babam, 30 far ss we
know, is the only potentste whose legisla-
tion affords Just parallel with this latest
'.moral emsnation" of the commonwealth u
of 'great moral ideas" But the Sultsn's
tastes, like those of the ''goOd little King
of YVetot," were festive rather than for
lorp. He issued decree that geVery man
who did not amuse himself within quar-
ter of an hour should be bsstinsdOed 10
aro---s,1 Nhaf
Scotchmsn ever comprehended 9 iokej
that it required, indeed, surgical opera
tion to get joke into ScOtchman's head.
But the Scotch never made it penal, SO far
as we know, to attempt the performance Of
this operation. They were content TO re-
ly upon Nature for the confusion and ami
hilstion of all adventurers who might IN
dertske TO make AUld Rsekie" laugh 1t
is hell enough for poet, observes MIR. Al
exander Smith IN plSintive sonnet, TO try
TO make poems and fail; and he accordingly
deprecates any violence upon such victims
from the critics. Surely it must be an ad-
equate punishment for any man, however
indecently comic, 10 attempt TO crack jokes
in Massachusetts and suffered under the
new regime Of statutable dullness about
there TO be established may properly cry
out with the unspprecisted and summarily
elected lover of the plsy-,.-...g
ssPerhsps it was right to disssmble your love;
But Why did you kicA me down stairs" q
One of the few literary men of metro
politan and continental repute who still
survive in Massachusetts Professor Long
fellow, in his last published volume Of
poems, has given the world lesson In very
sweet verse, which the Great and Gene
raj Court of Massachusetts has evidently
vet to learn. The poem sets forth the con-
sequences to 8 certain highly intelligent
| and painfully Yirtusus community of Al
act abolishing song-birds. After 3 season
of incredible moral drouth, breeding pes
thence of stupid ferOcity, the bird-slAyeri
60 bitterly repented Of their folly that they
went TO and fro in the earth seeking whal
they had lost, and ready, like the Irish
deans of Trinity College, to take fighting
cock for 8 song bird. These wise men o
Boston are preparing as sharp 8 repent
ance for themselves. After they have hveC
together in their gloomy Canaan for 8 yea
or two looking only upon each others sol
emn visages, listening only TO each Others
solemn plAtitudes, the lugubrious horror 0
their seif-imposed gloom viii drive then
mad the telegraph will some morning star
tie the nation with the news that the Who'll
population of the common wealth OF Mass
scbusetts have committed 8 "grest an
general suicide" by simultaneously gorgin
themselves to death on 3 fast day nigh
with pork and beans, mince pie and popPe
CONN. T. World -..