The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-01-04
American Humorists.
THEIR pREcARrors rAME-soAE NOTABLE INSTANCES.

THEIR PRECARIoUs FAME-soME NOTABLE INSTANCES.
We enjoy having a new name to admire and
laud, and after a little while, We enjoy equally
its depreciation and denunciation. We all seem
willing to lift Il person to a certain height, and
we relish seeing him there as long as we can
delude ourselves with the notion that we aided
to put him In the position. Hearing Others extol
him, we grow envious and cynical fall 10 pierre
ing him with arrows of satire, and are delighted
when ne is down, never to rise again.
A slight retrospect will prove the truth of the
statement. We can easily recall the wide pOpu-
larity Doesticks Mortimer Thompson) gained as
a humorist. HIS Damphool was in everybody's
mouth, and in many persons character. His
sketches were laughed at immodcTately. He
came from Detroit, Michigan, to New York and
the Tribune, and scintiilated for n year or two.
Then he was pronounced wearisome, and ere long
he sank out of sight. He wrote for the weekly
story-papers, but he lost his attraction, and
recently went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to assist
in editing q daily.
Artemus Ward followed. From a humble
local reporter on a Cleveland CO., Journal he rose
to more than national reputation. His phrases
were quoted by the people, and his lectures drew
crowds. He suffered an eclipse. He went to
England because, as it was said, his jokes were
all known here. He died, and the encomiums
that had been suspended were revived over his
grave.
"Nasby" (Locke) rose to fame Immediately
AllNA liAS wal hb0 oo aAAN NOSaAiO
You seldom see his badly spelled screeds now,
though he lectures with pecumary profit ; edits
the Toledo Blade. and is worth $3.50, 900.
Orpheus G.. Kerr (Robert III. Newall) was
highly commended for his clever satlres on the
Army of the Potomac in a New York weekly,
but became invisible with the return of peace.
He is attached at present to the staff of the
World, and does the Social Studies in the
Sunday issue.
Mark Twain Samuel L. Clemens) was brought
- = x r. - - 49,.
versally advertised by his extremely ludicrous
- Iunoceats Abroad" As the funny man on
the GALAXY he was pronounced such a failure
that he retired from his department in confusion
and panic. His "Roughing 1t is wholly Infe-
rior to his other book, though it has sold largely.
The public are w~earying of him a little, and he
must arouse himself If he cares for his laurels.
Bret Hart conquered attention by his extraor-
binary tales in the O0erL0nd and grew celebrated
by his tri1e, The Heather Chinee." Cities
and publications bid for him, and Boston and the
Atlantic carried him off. Since then he has been
stifed almost. We have had no really clever
thing from him, according to the critics, who
consider his reign at an end.
John Hay came home from Europe, wrote
s. Little Brooches s" and 4" Jim Bludsoe," and
was made the theme of countless paragraphs.
His admirable book, "Castilian Days" gave
him reputation among the cultivated, but they
are the few. He is doing fine strong work
on the Tribune, but he is slipping out of the
public eye.
Even Joaquin Miller, the poet of the Sierras,
has almost had his day. His songs are pro-
nounced monotonous, and his genius a manu-
featured article.
We await, at this moment, another coming
man-somebody to put up and pull down. He
will be along anon. The question is: Do our
humorists and literary lights decline, or do we
declare them exhausted because they are such,
or because we are merely fckle?-Neo0 York
CORRESPONDENT 81. Louis Globe.