The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-10-11
AMERICAN AND ENGLISH HUNOR.

AMEHICaN iND EtLLISd HCNOR
Nearly thir:y-four years since group Of men
met in Fleet street, London to consult AS to the
esta ollShment OF humorous periodical. They
were the representative wits Of England, fol
there were Dous las Jerrold, Mark Lemon, Gil
bert Beckett, Leman Reid, John Leech and
others-possibly Tnaekeray and Doyle-and
from their brains that day sprang the small
quarto which they happily called Punch, and
which under their direction attained a celeb
rity and a circulation unparalleled perhaps in
the literary history Of the world. For twenty
years the spirit in that Bowl of Punch was as
highly spiced with the wit and hulnor Of pen
and pencil, as it was in the beginning, when Jer-
rold with his bitter and brilliant fancy, ruled
over the weekly deliberations Of the jury OF
taste and when all opposition went dewn be-
fore the logic of his judgment.
For twenty years Puuch never tagged in
interest, for every mans pen seemed pointed
with diamond of inexhaustible fancy. Every
one connected With it was as well known by
reputation in the United States as in the land
OF his own home. Those twenty years formed
the twenty years of England's refined humor
Even the battles at the Mermaid when Shake
speare, JOnson, Beaumont and Fletcher met
! over their sacs, may not have equaled it. The
| roaring age, when the Congreves and Wych-
erlys rcughed it with the Mohawks, was tame
by comparison; and later still, when the wits
of " The Garden caused the coffee-houses to
ring with their more classical vaporings, and
Dick Steel, and that grand old country gem
tleman, Sir Roger de Coverley, met at Toms
to chat with the "Spec!ator" over their Mon
tilladO.
One by one those master humorists of the
age in their turn passed away, and the wit and
humor Of EnSl nd retired like ghostly shadows
with them Their vacant chairs were filed
by men OF brilliant education, but the
thoughts OF the new corners flowed in differ
ent streams, and the favor and spirit which
had made the old bowl of Punch so enjoyable,
by degrees became tssteless and sour The
cutting satire of Jerrold was never replaced.
The glorious gush Of humor which succeeded
him. and which beamed always from the face
OF Lemon found no successor. His reign of
power was long and brilliant, but at the close
of his days, even he was forced to admit that,
STIR the Punch never so carefully, it's flavor had
departed. English fun had become ponderous.
classical, hard to reach.
1t Was something which the dons of the |
colleges and the men of the schools could |
Srimly appreciate, but its spell was lost it |
was ''cauiare to the general" Not alone to
the writer's Of Punch was its excellence due
The pencils Of the men who illustrated its
pages have left no equal behind them either,
and we may look in vain to the times before
them for their like. Gilray with his gross
ness was only political satirist. Hogarth
alone can be said to have painted the times as
and even he fails in the i'm
nensity Of work done by the others. 4.eech
vas not painter, and could not claim, like
doSarth, to have q Marriage la Mode
n g Eake's Progress" hanging on the walls
II the national gallery. but ;.s an artist of the
people, deineating the life and manners of
treat Britain, lie vii. live as Pepys lives, to
mark the customs of nearly h Ii a century,
A change has come Ger the spirit of the 1
Gene. The Punch If to-day is no more the
PINCH of Jerrold and Lemon than is a Cape a
lay pebble compared with the Hastings Of J
ose brilliant. L
We have before rs a copy Of the London t
inch, and We take at random paper near t
st to our hands from clump of exchanges e
n the floor; we look with interest on the well r
nown title page of the first, and we run over y
IS pages to find, as Sir Charles Coldstream
emarked, waen he looked into Vesuvius, that l
there is nothing in it." The matter is SO q
rim and doleful That we cannot but won Ter b
hat manner of men they are that hold the "
esdnes Of Punch in their keeping now OF a
III, or wit, there is not an atom so far as we y
III detect. 1t is a wr1ng dish-rag. Punch, a
Ito which all Britain poured it's richest fam le
es. and which could be taken up and en- a
yed wherever the English language is spoken Il
IN the Punjanb as we'll AS in Piccadilly-is IL
ow mere refuge tov the destitute; % literary Il
al
We turn to our exchange. It has enough of "
,arking wit and cool solid fun in it to fur b.
ssh Punch for a month, and is an everyday ii
ient. We run over the papers on the floor, to
ID know from the daily experience os in CO
'ectlon that We can find the me result In n
Early all the papers Of all the cities in the lie
mon the same may be said The daily flow Ia
wit. 50 peculiarly American. is irrepress- h;
e. 1t is not always polished in it's char C
r; it frequently conveys rough truths which &C
ing badly, and as general thing is decided Et
wanting In that ro>e-blush tint of phrs seol- re
y which will make it acceptable to the Oh L
It; but whether from pen or pencil, it still WI
TVS on III a stream as ipexhaustible as it is IN
n IN material The minor weekly Illus ne
tied papers not referring to Harper's or IN
slie's-are infinitely superior to P,.nch.
They are not as chaste nor as fastidious in eit
cir selections, nor do they make one 1.-THE Ia
the pretenslons. They only assume to pro- 70
Ie laugh, and they succeed. Whatever of ia
American humor assumes to have point, loi
thiully carries its promise out It NAV
We barb behind IN a sensitive nature or a Ell
lous hide, but all America laughs, and the ns
1 is gained. Punch, on the contrary, which go
The embodiment of England's wit and hu- Nv
", has all the pretensons of the past with pc
any OF its reallzations The Punch bowl La
ps over every week, with an inanity which
feebly represents its poverty in this respect
n pared with its wealth of other d.ys. r.
! nothing left but the dross of its own lead
lie America, redundant in infinite fancy Go
lily Carries out the droll idea of one of it's in
st successful humorists, and dAres not be en-
funny as it can.-X Lo.tis Rep,Jlcuyl est
s.a
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