, 1871-06-27
Mark Twain ana His Griefs.


tory in the last Galaxy. Some of his
sentences in thai farewell address touch a
pschychelOgieal fact as unique and as in>
teresting as any that can be discovered in
the history OF the human mind. Has it
ever occurred to you, how 6reary q thing
it must be to take contract TO be funny
just so many times year, no matter how
grim you mUy happen 10 feel, nor how
doleful may be your surroundings In
deed to stipulsfe beforehand for the pc
riodical aud regular exertion Of any Of
our seEsibilities, grave or gay, would
seem TO be mortgaging ones very soul to
the most exquisite misery. The play of
fancy, the airy gulsVp Of those graceful
and idealizing moods Uf which genuine
literature is born, is a thing scarcely to be
calculated upon, and therefore not exactly
the subject for bargain and sale.
81 weary of the pen,
And write not Of mine own a cord;
1t was my slave, and was happy then;
G lis now my lord"
1t might be grief enough to agree, for
a consideration, to be sublime every Mon
day morning, to work the fancy every
Tuesday, to pass off into patbos every
"Wednesday, to be in a frame of exuber-
ant artistic appreciation every Thursday !,
but how abou. undertaking to be Jolly,
whether Or no, every Friday, no matter if
on that day you are appointed to be
hanged-s Indeed, such an appointment,
prrhaps..would be the one exhilarating
relief to the gloom of shch situation.
Humor, one is inclined 10 believe, must
come spontaneously, If it come at all !;
aud it is the twin sister of Caprice. Who
that can compute the return of a comet,
can compute as re-arrival? And that We
may have before us the conditions of the
curious mental problem on which we are
engaged, recall few words from Twain's
last dying words aud confession: ''For
the last eight months ! have had for my
fellows and comrades, night and day, doc
tots and watchers of the sick. During
ti ght months death has taken two mem
brrs OF my home circle and Indignantly
threatened TWO Others. All this l have
experienced, yet all the time have been
under contract to finnish humorous mats
ter once a month for tais magazine. Please
to put yourself in my place, aud contem-
plate the grisly grotesqueness of the situa-
iion. To be pirate on low salary, and
with no share in the profits of the bGsi~
ness, used to be my idea of an uncomfor-
table occupation; but / have other views
now. To BIZ a monthly -humorist in a
cheerless time is drearieI -
So tar, gentle lady. you freely go along
with me.
! A, tL;s ro;nt sbau ,t;1 ovo,DJ ,
very short corner. Will you follow
You probably think that Marx Twain's
depressed spirits and gloomy envelop-
ments were unfayorable for the produce
tion OF wit and humor. You are mis-
taken. The history of literature shows
that the wits and humorisis of all ages
have been the saddest of men, and that
th,ir most brilliant flashes have risen from
the depths of the darkest griefs
The whites; passages of Dean Swift
broke from him when his mind was cloud
ed with hypochondria, which led on to
madness. Those chapters in Fielding and
Smollet which have cOnvulsed all readers
with inextinguishable laughter, were writ
ten under the pressure of misery. Tom
Hoods Comic Annuals'' came forth amid
sickness, and debt, and the pangs of fanxi-
ETY.. The personal dispositions of an au-
thor may be quite the reverse from those
which appear in his writings" So said
dear old Isaac Disraeli, whose whole life
was an analysis and record of the moods
and passions Of literary action. So be
adds: .'Johnson would not believe that
Horace was happy man because his
verses we've cheerful, no more than he
could think Pope so, because he is contin-
ually informing us Of IT," Who of his
age had more n elancholy temper than
Muliere, who has furnished laughter for
the civilized world for two hundred and
fifty years You know the classic story
OF Carlin, the Italian comic actor of the
last C. injury, and how, at the very time
when he was nightly filling Paris with
mrih, in utter wretchedness he applied
to physician and was advised to take
few doses of Carlin. Il am Carlin him
self" he exclaimed in despair Aud
there is John B. Cough, whom rank as
the greatest dramatic genius of our time,
with range through the two hemispheres
of Tragedy and Comedy as masterful as
that OF Garriek. Coughs fun is never so