The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-06

to give the point OF the STORY. lheh' III auul-
ton TO this. he must have falcon eye for the
snbtieties of individual character, and the
mower of expressing this upon the lockwood
bIocI, NTH The same freedom and dash with
which he would throw off a pen-and-ink
sketch upon paper. Execution has been
great snare to most artists engaged upon the
hest comic papers that have run their brief
ond cbeokered careers in this country, mere
nrettiness of drawing being too often looked
nnon as compensation for poverty of idea in
tbe design. The kind of humor generally char
acterized as American, and of which "Artemas
Word,, must be considered as the most success
ful exponent at the present time, is not OF a
ouality practicable for the pencil; neither
Is it whatever its originality and greatness,
fitted in any sense, to be the staple of a comic
journal. A spice Of it is capital thing TO
have. though, and such, it seems, is the
opinion to-day of the heads that inspire the
London ChdriCdri.
Taking it altogether, the pictorial depart
ment of comic paper is the most difficult
one with which the editor has to deal. The
Cartoon" or large illustration embodying
some leading topic of the day, is feature
now considered indispensable to a publica-
ton of the kind. Those who have not
tried can hardly imagine the difficulty
of hitting on, at certain times, a smart idea
for this hebdomadal clincher of current events.
A congress of heads is the only means by
which the thing can be managed with GER
tainty and success. 1t is at the weekly dinner
of Punch that the important matter of the car
toon is discussed and decided upon and few
will be so uncandid as to deny that good cheer
is an efficient prompter of wit. But comic
papers have, ere now, been driven over stony
roads, without ever a chance of pulling
up to seek for inspiration at the tes-
tive board. Midsummer is usually dreary
time for the few brains that are left to
invent the mirthful cartoon. Nobody, who
can help it, remains in town during the dog
days. The suggestive contributor-and an
invaluable functionary is he's fishing for
trout and disappearing black-fies by the
margin of some highland stream. The bril-
liant paragraphist is usually too much strait
ened, financially, to fly to the rural districts,
but his town engagements with Bacchus,
Silenus, and Company, are of a pressing and
imperative kind and he cannot be relied upon
in the hour of need. Under these circum-
stances feebler spirits have to be conferred
with; but the brunt of the situation has gene
rally to be borne by the editor at last.
The effects of comic journalism upon the
editorial mind offer a nice little subject for
analysis and dissection. l was acquainted
with one who had had experiences in the
conduct of such vehicles for pleasantly as
those under notice, and he used to relate har-
rowing things about the visions that dis
turbed his slumbers on the nights preceding
the days for 'making up" BoX-wOod had
become deadly upas for him. What the
red-cedar is to the moth, what the black-ash
is said to be to the rattlesnake, such was
the yellow-boX to him. His dreams
were horrible illustrations of demon life
and character, drawn upon box. His
funereal pile, composed of layers of box
wood blocks, of all sizes, from the large
ones used for cartoons to the smallest, upon
which initial fancies are usually cut. These
were pencilled all over with grotesque figures
of things hideous beyond human conceptions;
and the originals of the portraits were there,
too, moping and moving about the pyre,
upon which they were preparing to immediate
the supine dreamer of the dream.
Few things are more acceptable to persons
anxious to bring, or to keep themselves before
the public, than to have nOtice-little matter
how untlattering-taken OF them by squib
or caricature in the pages of a comic
journal A note will come to the editor, for
example, a naughty looking little bILet-dour
with trilled edges, and with it a cGrte-de-UlStte
of the correspondent, haply some provincial
actress of the muscular school, who wants to
make a metropolitan sensation, and is anxious
to have a broad caricature of herself in al
early number of the paper. Should no notice
be taken of this, the next thing, in all prOba
| bility, is a call from the managing agent o.
the lady, who hints that money can be realized
by the transaction, and, in some cases, ever
! goes so far as to prompt the editor to name
his price. have known instances in which
| good round sums were offered to secure the
| desired notice. Sometimes a paragraph bear
! ing reference to an individual who believes il
advertising himself or his enterprises tickles
the vanity of that person so greatly, that he
! will write to the editor, saying that box o
cigars, or a complete outfit OF new clothes, is
at the service OF the writer of the gratifying
pasquinade, if he will only send to or call al
such and such place for it, and | once heard
a sagaciOus public character say that a certain
| satiTical article in which he figured prOmi
nently was worth at least thousand dollars
| to him.
Were people at large only half as liberia
in subscribing to comic papers as they are
| in rendering advice with regard to the best
| course to be taken by the directors of them,
success in that branch of journalism would
be secure. Among the comic editorial expe-
| riences, the receipt of letters of advice forms
| a very prominent item. 1t is no unusual cir
cumstance for several letters to arrive at the
same time from different quarters, all of them
| giving the views of the writers as to how the
paper should be conducted to satisfy the pub,
lie and insure success, and each one of them
taking up position Numerically opposite to
some of the others. Could the writers but
hear the roars of 'fnextinguishable laughter
with which their productions are greeted
while being compared and criticized by the
| editorial staff, they would doubtless be
surprised TO md how funny they had become
unknown to themselves. One writer tells you
I q pfo Of