The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-08-24
s.JOsh Btllings =" I'm England
from The London Spectator.

from Inc LONDON sI4tctator1
Educated Americans often express some
astoni,bment at the liking displayed by the
British public tor the American humer-
ist"-men in whom, they say, they find lit
tie except some commonplace extravaganza
and much bad spelling. With the excaIs
ton OF the " Heathen Chinee," which made
an immense bit, and exercised Z permanent
influence on public opinion, they do not, We
are told, genuinely admire any of the comic
productions Englislmen fud soraey. They
prefer Mr.. Lowelfs serious poems, which
sweet as they are, VIII SCARCELY live, to the
IS Bigelow Papers, which will .last as long
as their diaiect remain intelIigibe; scarcely
estimate Lelaaa at English valuation, won.
der at the fuss made about Mark Twaia, and
hold Ar,emus Ward to have been a low
comedian. |,
AS the Americans are. in their way, more
humorous than the English, aud .as they
produce these professional humorists, this
want of appreciation Of them would be hard
TO understand, or even TO admit, we're 1t DOT
visible also aEong the Scotch, half OF whom
are full Of racy humor which the ether hatf
seem unable to comprehend. We never met
SeOtchman yet-and We haze tried the eN.
pertinent serera! tiules-who 1ully enloyaa
Arteinus Ward, or understood why the alb
surd inconSruity OF his sayings, NTH the
shrewdness embodied in his thought, made
Enslishmen shake with laughter such as no
English humor seemed IN any equal degree
20 provoke. There must be two pubHes in
America Just as there are in Scotland. and
one of them despises the laughter which the
other enjoys. One cause Of the eontemptis,
we suspect. the arti6eaity into which all
humorists who trade on their hpmOr are
sure to fall; another, the weariaess Of
Americans of tue shrewd sayings in which
much OF their humor is embodied; and the
third, the preposteroDs use some of the
comic authorists make OF bad spelling. Ar.
temus Ward made his bad spelling flnay,
the absolute difference between the method
OF conjugstiDg one expected aud the method
lac tried, exciting OF itselffthe sense OF in.
congruity, which Is the first cause of laugh.
ter /; but his imitstoIs have lost his art, such
as 1t was, almost or quite completely. The
person who calls himself .Josh Billings =
has entirely. CHANGING to take up the book
at railway station, the writer decided during
ten minutes run that "JoSh Billings's I"
wit and humor was, on the whole,
the most contemplate, vulgar trash he
had ever had in his band-worse by
many degrees than the worst failure OF
the old London comic school-quite
as bad, in fact, as its eyer, which repre-.
sented a paunchy fool tum6ing on his hands
and lifting with his feet white hat with
mourning Grape all round it. Having, how
ever, TO travel further, and no other books |
being at hand, he tried to read it steadily, |
and discovered In a painful balEhour this
curious fact = Josh Billings" is the nick.
name OF some unknown person, apparently |
well educated, with the mind, II one could |
Imagine such 9 mind, OF q Dissenting sgd
ney Smith. He has not, q course, the iull
power of the witty divine. He has injured
,ach power as he has by using it up, ap- /
,areatly, as NE guess from bis dedication,
Q earn his bread, and bis topics sre usually. |
nierior; but he has in 4 high degree