Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-01-23
American Humorists--TheirP recarious
Fame.


We enjoy having a new name to adj
mlre and laud, and after little while
we enjoy equally its depreciation and
denunciation. We all seem willing to
lift person to 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. Hear
ing others extol him, we grow envious
and cynical; fall to piercing him with
arrows OF satire, and are delighted when
he is down, never to rise again.
A slight retrospect will prove the
truth of the statement. We can easily
recall the wide popularity Doesticks
(Mortimer Thompson gained as hui
morist His Damphool was in every
body's mouth, and in many persons
character. His sketches were laughed
at immoderately. He came from De-
trolt, Mich, to New York and the I116-
me, and sinctillated for 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 Min
neapohs, Mimi, to assist in editing a
daily.
Artemus Ward followed. From a
humble local reporter on a Cleveland
CO., journal he rose to moro than ma
tional 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 enconiums that had been
suspended were revived over his grave.
" Nasty" Nocke) rose to fame imme-
dlately after the war; had his culmina-
ton and decline. You seldom see his
badly spelled screeds now, though he
lectures with pecuniary profit edits the
Toledo Blade, and is worth $3.50, 900.
Orphens G. Kerr (Robert Fl. NewelD
was highly commended for his clever
satires on the Army of the Potomac in a
New York weekly, but because 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 to the surface by the Jumping
Frog, and universally advertised by his
extremely ludicrous 'Innocents Abroad"
AS the funny man on the GALAXY he was
pronounced such failure that he retired
from his department in confusion and
panic. His "Roughing 1t" is wholly
inferior to his other book, though it has
sold largely. The public are wearying
of him little, and he must arouse him
self if he cares for his laurels.
Bret Harte conquered attention by his
extraordinary tales in the Overland and
grew celebrated by his trife, "The
Heather Chinee." Cities and publica-
tons 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, accord
ing to the critics, who consider his reign
at an end.
John Hay came home from Europe,
wrote Little Brooches" and Jim
Bludsoe," and was made the theme of
countless paragraphs His admirable
book, ''Castilian Days." gave him repu-
tation 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 pronounced monotonous, and
his genius manufactured article.
| We await, at this moment, another
coming man-somebody to put up and
pull down. He will be along anon.
The question is i: Do our humorists and
literary lights decline, or do we declare
them exhausted because they are such,
or because we are merely tickle ?-NeaS
| York Correspondent ST. Louis Globe.