New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-18
FIJTSIVE HUMOR.

Int Tw,rS a. " Clemens 12mo. PIP. 306 Boston:
James II. Osgood Co.
IL Is the elusive quality OF his humor that MI
Clemens has, apparently endeavored 10 ilustrato III
this volume-the coy, shrinking retlcenco Vi
facet,ous mind that shuns the garish light of pub
icity The book contains eighteen brief sketches or
narratives and derives It's title from the first OF
them The WRITER seems occasionally willing to
stinulate feeling of amusement but, for the most
mart he is repressed checked and it were, held in
leash bv n beautiful modesty Humor, in the writ
inps of Mark Twain" must, of course, be present
somewhere professional jester, and one so expert
enced and so consttutionally merry, surely couIu
never be dull Yet the reader turns the leaves OF
this volume hour after hour, without even the les'
temptation to smile There is something more than
natural in this, but little philosophy soon mas IL
out. DR.. Holmes. many years ago, realized lhaV ne
had destroyed far too many vest buttons anu 50 ho
mercifully determined to curb his fun Mr' Cieih-
ene has arrived at the same conclusion. His humor
wells its flame: retireS in fact to the intellectual
attic, aud draws up the ladder. The reader IL ne
would find 1t at ALL seek 1t IN that scciusion'
To read The Stolen White Elephant "-0earng
in mind this hint as to the spirit in which no douoI
il was conceived and i'll which 1t should Do ap-
proached,-is to be highly edited. Mr.. Clemens
annears 70 think that the detective police officer OF
ance of his duty; and, to present this great and
thrilling idea he shows certain quaint Willingness
TO cast rdicule upon that functlonary Ills sketch
might ne construed into compound OF laugh and
sheer at the New-York force. 1t fills nearly thirty
rapes and the effort that its author must have
made to keep himself from being openly funny
would be viewed with positive pain, but for CON
soling sense of his benevolence ana mercy. we
feel that our police department would certainly
have been destroyed, if Mr.. Clemens had only gwen
himself full swing; SOME of us Will dev0utly WISH
that he had but we end with the conviction that
finally it was spared. In giving an account OF the
Bermuda Islands the humorist holds himself with
even tighter rein. He noticed that the houses
there are white; he saw upward OF million
CATS; and he elegantly remarks that our eyes got
to panng us a good deal" lie observed " q blessed
soo,hinr twilight which "spreaj its cool balm
around" and he states that 1t proceeded rom an
intensely black negro who was going by" lie re-
members that he walked in tight shoes and that his
feet were hurt and he describes ths interesting and
obviously drol experience. lie looked upon an
indlarubber tree but could not detect that II pro-
duced either shoes suspenders. lie beheld pota-
toes and onions. and has recorded the iact' lie
heard of a souvenir of Thomas Moore, which at hrSt
he vaguely thought was Jug, but aiterward
ascertalned was chair. And he says mat LOT
dinner he once " had an rOn-clad chicken, that was
deliciously cooked but not in the right way The
lovely hulnor of all this may not and probably VIII
not I've ut once perceived II is coy. But, when
the reader gets at it, his bliss is unspeakabie.
There is more Of the same kind. Once in n while,
AS in the chapter called Curious Experience"
the speech on the Decay of the Art OF Lying ana
the story OF an Encounter with an interviewer
the humOrist yields to a buoyant tendency ana
seems momentary emancipated from the grip OF
his comnassonate rcticence But his loss Of specific
gravity is never large his sclf-command remains,
for the most part adamantine and inexorabc.
- The Great Revolution of Pitcairn" shows this
mower TO brilliant advantage No reader fail to
supect that it cOnceals mrth; yet no reader could
forgive himself for viewing it with levty. Its drift
apears to be dersive OF something but Mr. Clemens,
in this instance has darkly yelled both his object
of attack and his weapons of fun. This indeed Is
" Laughter holding both his sides" But this IS
nothing to the sketch called The lnvalids Story.
in which Laughter holds not its sides only, but also
its nose-that delicate and delicious bit OF elusive
and vanishing hunor having reference TO the
transit, aboard express railway car, OF box OF
rotten Iimburgcr cheese which IS supposed TO De
pstrefying human corpse Upon this fragrant, drol.
and exhlarating topic Mr.. Clemens fingers with
coressinr Tenderness He evidently could find il in
theme so comic and so sweet as this. He revels in
It; and one can readily see that all the compassion
of his benlgnant mind has been taxed to restrain
his pleasantly in the treatment of it. lie has cut
this tale short giving it only ten pages; most
readers can get through il, with the aid of smelling
salts and not be utterly exhausted with either
laughter or nausea. Such noble fOrbeaTance on the
part of a humOrist is indeed, rare. Sometimes the
same magnanImOus modesty is allowed to curb even
the invention of this authOr-as when in Punch,
Brothers Punch" he gently gathers up the ideas
of another satirist and descants on the Horse
Car RHYMES Of the expert and caustic Bromley.
An ingenious mind, might be imagined. could
furnish no better evidence than this of its owlness
and candor Mr.. Clemens goes further still for in
another of these sketches. he conjures up persona
fcation of his own conscience, and in the frank
and confidlng mood of autobiography, makes that
image address to him the solemn statement: " In
truth YOU are always consistent always yourself
ALWAYS an ass There is something so unexpected
so abrupt and so decisive in this that it seems to
leave nothing for anybody else to say.
THE HOLY BIBLE ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR
IZED VERSION "a. d., l6ll). win AN Explanatory
and Critical CommentIry AID Revision OF the Trans
ladon by Bishops aad other Clergy OF the Anglican
Church Edited by }. C. Coo =, NJ; A.. Canon 81 Elk
elation of St John. Royal sYo. PIP. s4l Charles
Scribner's Sons.
This is the concluding volume of the Speakers
Commentary, so called in honor of the Speaker Of
the House of Commons the late Right Hon. j.
Evelyn Denison, Lord OF Ossngton, who, eighteen
years ago, conceived and suggested IT, The plan Of
the book. briefly stated. to make the latest n-
formation on the Bible accessible TO men of
ordinary culture. The general edltorship was en-
trusted to the Rev. +. G.. Cook Canon of + Keter
and Preacher of Lincoln's Inn, and the different
books were then assigned each to writer who
had given special attention to the subject of it,
The Archbishop of York, with the Regius Professors
of Divinity OF Oxford and Cambridge, acted as a
committee of reference The English version of the