New-York tribune., 1870-12-17
A MATTER OF COURSE

The comic weekly which, under the name Of
P,enchinello, has for the last year been strug-
Cling against it's fate, has succumbed. We
expect to hear the usual chorus of uDthinking
citizens of Bohemia, that America cannot sup
port humorous paper. But we are not in
clned to give so general an explanation to
this especial case. We think, on the contrary,
that the autopsy Of this dead weekly indicates
a state of public sentiment altogether en-
couraging.
The late bebdomadal had no reason to live.
1t was dull beyond description. The sagacious
A. Ward once said he thought it rather i'm
proved comic paper TO print joke now and
then. But when paper is as dreary as this
was it is even dangerous to admit a flash of
righteousness, which lights up to frightful dis
tinctness the dead level of surrounding inanity.
There was always something rather startling
in good joke printed by PanchinelIo. 1t af-
fectcd the reader with sense of incongruity,
like dance music at funeral. But to say it
died of dullness is not enough. The cause of
its hopeless stupidity remains to be indicated.
The publishers say. in their circular an
nOuncing the discontinuance of the journal
"To every leading humorist in the country an
" engagement was rendered upon their (sic) own
"terms, . but with one exception we
" failed to secure them, for reasons, no doubt,
" satisfactory to themselves" Satisfactory, we
add, to everybody. Pnnchinello was cursed from
the beginning with the i'll SAVIOR of Tammany. 1t
fought under the pirate flag of that club Of
vulgar thieves, thus making its only friends
among those who have no capacity to appre-
ciate any literature whatever. The wit and
talent of the country are now, rs always, mainly
enlisted on the side of decency and justice.
How could self-respecting journalists col
laborate in paper owned by the men whose
cynical dishonesty has made our city n by
word and reproach TO. democratic govern
ment The better classes would not read nor
write for Punchinello, and the class it catered
for preferred The Police Gazette 1t found, to
use its own language again, but two ways
"open: first, to lower the tone of the paper,
"and especially the character Of its illustrations
secondly, to discontinue it." They have
chosen wisely.
We hope this lesson will carry with it the
needed warning. The men who have carried
this Inflated experiment into the path of de-
struction are to great extent the same who
did to death, few years ago, the most prom
ising humorous paper we have ever had. When
the war broke out, Vanity Fair had a most
precious opportunity for glory and long life.
But it was twisted out of its proper course
into an organ of doubt and reaction; it maun-
dered about Mcclellan and abused THE TRI-
BUNE-and horror of great dullness fell upon
it, and it died. No humorous paper can ever
live in this country which does not seek its
audience among reading people, and its con-
tributors among the wholesome and honest
men of thought and progress. The managers
of the Democratic party in NewYork succeed
Indifferent well in stealing railroads, buying
judges and dancers, and stuffing ballot boxes.
Let them be satisfied with that, and not at
tempt the impossible task of suborning wit,
and breaking with burglary into the domain
of letters.