New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-01-18
THREE LOST HUNORfSTS.

|
class hImorists There is the sprightiy ana
agile little Mr.. COx-Samuel ). lie used 10 DE
funny, but lately he somehow seems to dlSap-
point the expectations OF the public, ana no
| doubt his own. He was at one time quite sue
ccssfui az q humOrist He wrote and told some
funny stories, was occasionally crisp and bright
at rcpartee, and when his party was III a
minority and he was burdencd with no
| great sense Of responsibility. he skipped
about the edge of things and into and
out of serious debates with much of frshl-
ness and good nature that the House counted
| him and he counted himself one of the few
humorists of that solemn asscmblagc OF thistle
eaters. Mr. Cox carried the thing so far IL 10
write book on HumOr entitled "Why we
Laugh" which together with the public had
| large sale. He was everywhere recognized rs
| n humorist, funny man :" always ready
with a joke or an anecdOte to trip an
adversary in gOod-natIIed way al
ways in good temper except indeed
when Ben Butler was about-and no
one can keep good-tempered then-always
Jolly and frocsomc. and liked just rs much by
, opponents as by friends. Bat unfortunately
for him, and the party, and the country. his
found himself in a majority. The change it
produced in him was absolutely marvellous.
| He set up at once to be statesman ana
leader. lie undertook indeed to BE- Speaker OF
the House. And he was quite i'll earnest about
it. Went at it really in solemn manner
Most people thought it was his best JOKE
Perhaps he thought 50 himself, and with
that went out of the business. For really
he haze MT venturcd on Il righteousness
| now for several months. Not only has his
jocoseness left him, but his good nature.
Everybody remembers how during the last
session he snarled and snapped at his oppo-
ncnts, and on several occasions lost his tenn
| Fer and used bad language; and how ne left
| off payfulDess entirely and seemed bent on
| being n statesman at any sacrifice Of his own
sweetness and the comfort of his fclow-men.
| 1t seems a great pity that he should persist IN
it, but he does, and we fear we shall have to
record him us Il lost humorist. Meantime the
list of statesmen has not been enlarged.
Then there was Proctor Knott of Kentucky,
whom Mr.. Cox himself has celebrated in his
! book above referred to as being best known
las a Congressional humorist" whose "hu-
NOR. like all equine virtues, has little or no
malice in its composition" Speaking of Mr..
Knott's speech on the Pennsylvania Pavement
| bill, Mr. Cox says: "Did he argue the points
| logcally3 OF course. But who remembers
the logic of arithmetic, when down the deep
iambic lines the COthurn treads majestic, full
d" of mock and tumid tropesi who cares for
the syllOgism or the ignOrdfio ciench when y
"cborus of bacchautrs sing the dthyrGmb of
"wild and Intoxicating frolics0mencss There
! is logic of fun which browns, Overtops
Z" all: and Proctor Knott fiOated on this rolling
&" sea as easily as Capt. BoytOn in the Chan
"ncl, or rather like behcmOth of the deep"
| But Mr.. Cox says, "Un;il the Duluth speech
was made the House had little thought
8" of the rich pentude of hmor III store
for them" That speech everybody re-
members. 1t made the fame of Duluth
does well in his chapter on "Legislatiye
"Iiumors" to quote freely from it. There
was no question, up to the first session of the
present Con -,rcSs, that Proctor Knott was n
first class American humorist. He was so
remembered by all who heard his speeches in
| Congress; he was recognized by all who
read those widely circulated documents. And
yet we fear we must set Proctor Knott down
among the lost humOrists. He too, seems 10
have been taken off untmely by the disease
Of craftsmanship, the bane, if not of American
at least of Democratic humOr. Proctor Knott,
! too, came waddling into the House with the
/ majority when his party came to power. Every
body laughed and said, Now we shall see
some fun" Fun Not a bit it. They
made him Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee. Everybody laughed mt that, to be
snre-except Knott. He took it in great seri-
BUSINESS. He has never said funny thing
since He has ceased to be humOrst. He is
a statesman. The disease affects him the same
way it does Mr.. Cox. All hst session Knott
was slIrly and quarrelsOme and uncomfortable.
He kept doing little things that he wouldn't
have thought of doing had he been only n
humorst, but which he thought he must do in
order to be a statesman. And then when he
was called to account foi it he got angry and
talked badly, and didn't seem at all like the
good -natured behemOth described by Mr.. Cox.
And he seems to be keeping up the same be-
havior now. He's plainly lost humorist.
And there are no more statesmen than there
were before.
And now here's Henry Watterson. Every
body likes WattersOn. He is fluent and
amiable blonde. He is, or rather was, before
he went to Congress and caught the disease of
craftsmanship, the recognized humOrist of the
Western press. His soul-stirring political lead
ers during the late campaign, dated " / a. H., u
"1:30 a. m.," 90 a. m.," and so on till sum
rise, had all the solemnity of the wide-eyed
bird who makes those hours his own but they
were just rs funny as they could be. SO, too,
his long and detailed accounts of the con-
| sniracY among the Qhin aud Indiana doctors