New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-01-04
TILE EIRCE OTER.

That portion OF the public which loves its Jest and
ia no. particular about the quality thereof, lost one
Of the mos constant OF its butts Wednesday last
in the death of the COunt pseudo or legitimate who
has furnished II with So much food for cheap mirth
II Is 40 pleasant TO litter that society is apt TO grow
heariless in its tttering. Poor old George Jones.
or the Count Joannes, as he called himself and
every body called him, 4 solemn person
TO be 80 much laughed at lie seems to have
been much in earnest and to have thor
oughly believed in himself his hstrionc Abilities
his antiquarian and literary talents, his qualilica-
tons as a lawyer, and his good breeding a gen.
tlcman. II he had kept away from the stage he
might have been saved q good deal Of ndecorous
treatment but in better days he had been re-
spcctablo actor Of secondary parts. and he also
pears 20 have thought that the name and fame Of
Shakespeare were under his special protection.
II 10 hardly worth while to say more of him ;
he is dead and gone, and will DO speedily for
gotten; but it may do no harm to sug-
COST the doubtful morality of the treatment to
which no was subjected. Somebody. we suppose
will take his place and be ieered at and qnIzzed
he was The city has always had some human oddity
TO amuse itself withal. At the beginning of tho
century there a barber by the namo of Higgins
plying his vocation IN lower Broadway, The wits
of the town printed in the newspapers many verses
70 himself These were afterwards collected in a
volume, now become rather scarce and the iig-
ginsana" were really little droil. Another
butt of the town was Mcdonald Clarke.
the maddest of poets and the worst. lilo lived.
nobody knew how and nobody knew where. kept on
rhyming to the last. and was tho subject OF a hun
bred jOcOse paragraphs. Then til ere was George
Washington Dixon, the negro methodist always
ready To write land sing Fourth of July odes and to
deliver Fourth of July orations. Another butt
was poor Branch. who was of Il good New-En0and
family. but who drfted somehow INTO the whirl of
New-York. printed queer newspapers, and afforded
much amusement to those who, arc easily
amused. Not n permanent inhabitant of New
York. is Daniel Pratt, jr., the great American
Traveller. lie roams the world and is food for fun
wherever he goes. We might extend the list. but
it is already long enough. What surprises ono is
the propensity of the public to tease those out of
whom there is really no fun to be had The testers
of old made excellent jokes which set the table in
a roar, and were ioked at in return; but Yoricks
only make us wonder why they are not IN a lunatic
asylum.
Wniie Mcdonald Clarke, the crazy bard already
mentioned. was afording the paragraph writers
some opportunity, dear and excellent Lydia Maria
Child, who was then writing letters from New
York TO The Boston Courier, took him up with her
sweet seriousness. and pited the poor vcrsemouger
whose soul out of tune II chance had offered
she wouid have found kind things to say of the
strange man who is just dead. Perhaps she
wonld thus show herself wiser than those who
grinnod az his iufrmitos and humored his foibles
for the sake of little diversion.