New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-02-22
ORR DEMOCRATIC HUMORIS1S.

OUR DEMOCRATIC HUMORIS1S
One OF our lost humOrists is in fair way OF
recovery. Mr.. Cox, who has been anxious
about the country now for more than year,
and in his anxiety has forgotten not only
| "Why we laugh" but almost how to laugh,
has exhibited signs of returning health. On
| Tuesday in the House, in the discussion on
the Louisiana decision of the Electoral Commits
sion, he coruscated with wit and glOwed with his
old good humor. The mood of melancholy
which has set on him so heavily since Demo-
cratic majority came into Congress is passing
off, and he is beginning to seem like himself
again. The change will be noticed with delight
by all his friends. During the whole of this
irving period in which Mr.. Cox has been suf-
fering from craftsmanship and in constantly
depressed state of mind on account OF the
condition of the country, his friends have felt
confident that some time or other he would
work out OF it, and, throwing OIL the de-
fusion that he is cut out for leader
resume his old playfulness and good nature.
With Blaine out of the House and Butler not
back yet, there seemed to be nothing IN that
body to rasp his temper or excite his anger, but
every reason to hope for mitigation of the
malady if not for its permanent cure. With
the disappearance of all hopes of Tilden's cleo
ton, he feels no doubt that he is in great
measure relieved of responsibility for the tu-
tire of the country, and this must have con-
tributed largely to the improvement in his
condition.
Mr. WattersOn still lOitcrs with the states
men, bnt in his speech of Tuesday there was
so much more of sorrow than of anger that
we feel quite certain he is on his way back to
health and the mood of merrimcnt He too
has had his hours of being borne down with
the weight of the whole nation, and there
have been times when he has felt that he
could not stand it alone, but must have help
from Kentucky. His condition improves with
the progress of the count, and by the time
the end is reached and Hayes inaugurated
he will he IS full of fun as ever As for Mr..
Proctor Knott, we fear his case is hopeless.
There was a time when he was one OF the
most promising humOrists on the floor of the
House or in his party. But he took to states
manshiD so soon as his party obtained ma
iority in Congress, and has ever since been
gloomy, -natured, and morOse. There was
a possibility of his recovery with the retire
ment of his party from power; and it was the
hope of the country that even the small ma
iority the party has in the next House would
be so tempered to HIM by the defeat of Tilden
that he would rise up from the Judiciary Com
mittee, cease trying to be a statesman, ana
he once more q tirst-class humorist. And we
believe this would have happened had 1t not
been for the fatal blunder of sending David
Dudley Field to Congress and putting him on
Kuott's committee. Left to himself he might
have come out of the delusOn, but when he
saw that his party doubted his craftsmanship
20 much as to send David Dudley Field to
bnlMoze him into second place on his own
committee, it was too rude a shock for him.
1t is to be feared that he will never appear
again in comedy. The country could better
spare his craftsmanship than his fun.
We are not without hope, however, that all
these Democratic humorists who have been
such a delight to us when their party was III
a minority and Irresponsible, will by and by
leave off masquerading as statesmen ana re-
sumo the dear old cap and bells. The con-
tagion of their example has already had the
bad effect to unsettle the judgments of several
lesser lights in the department OF humOr.
For instance, Mr. Dom Piatt, who has never
been more than a pinchbeck humorst, has
been so worked upon by the remarkable
change in the conduct of his exemplars,
and so thoroughly imbued with the idea
that the field of humor in the Democratic
party has been exhausted, that he let HIM
self out the other day In burst OF
indignation that far surpassed them all. The
genuine humorists had only gone so far as
to propose war. Piatt just sat down to his
desk and wrought himself up to such fury
over the way things are going that nothing
would answer his purpose but assassination.
1t only shows the effect of unfortunate ex-
ample, and how important it is for humOrists,
frst-class or pinchbeck, especially Democratic
humorsts, to stick to business and not allow
themselves to be carried away by the fa>cina-
tons of craftsmanship. Let us hope that with
the conclusion of the count they will
all permanently recover, and that even
Patt, whose case is the most desperate
from his having taken the disease so late,
may taper off gradually from the statesman
ship that involes assassination to the normal
mental condition in which his effort at humor
finds its natural outlet and full expression in
descriptions Of the "aged scoundrels' of the
Supreme Court who, under "fne-spun legal
i