The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-06-16
WHY HuMoRIsrs FAIL.

pondent, wny humorous writers should, sooner than men who follow other branches of literature, lose the faculty of entertainment ?" No writer of progres- sion, the writer who reads the best litera- ture and thinks, should lose the faculty of entertainment. The humorous writer should especially be long-lived, for hu- man nature and the world is full of sug- gestions, and if humorous writers do wear out sooner than the serious writer. it is because the humorous work is watched closer, and any failure to reach a once planted standard is immediately set down by the crowd as re,rogression. Any one considers himself competent to judge of piece of humor, even men of the most limited education They do no, reflect that the success of a refined hu- morous article depends quite as much upon literary construction as upon the point contained. Some men who would not attempt to criticise a serious article, although any one a, a glance might determine that it was lacking in force, will take up piece of humor, and through very dullness to feel the fine suggestions, base an elaborate criticism.
 There is one cause, though, why hu- morous writers fail to keep alive longer than their matter-of-fac- contemporaries, and that is, whisky. They are innately convivialists, and are sought by good fellows" Alter a night of "fun,r it is difficult to write an article of amusement. but the work must be done. 4 man may take several "suaights" and julep or two, and feel that he can write ali around himself, but he needs one more to make it an assured thing. After while he is so confident of his ability, his head is so full of humorous plots that he decides to wait until the next day. When he awakes next morning, all of his plots are gone, and distant and uncertain rumbling in his head tells him they are gone forever He must write, though, and he takes several drinks to reproduce the feeling of the night before. He is unsteady when he begins work and his copy lacks sober 1 thought, the deliberate and panstaking work which alone can make an article readable Pursuing such course. his retrogression is not surprising-to any one but himself. He will not acknowl- edge that he is drinking too much. X man is pretty far gone when he does acknowledge it. Ar,cmus Ward. i, was i thought by many, and with reason, too. was. for some time previous to his un- timely death, losing his fine powers of humor. All of Wards friends know that he drank deeply, and few, perhaps, will deny that to this excess can be ascrbed his loss of tha, great capacity which made the English language laugh. Old Josh Billings, on one occasion, when he dined noted with regret the ruin that was taking place, and went away vowing tha, he never would give way to such indul- gencies. Ward soon died, and Billings, now an old man. has added the wisdom of a sage 10 the humor of man. He is doing as good work now as he ever did, and has no trouble in securing the highes, price in the market
 The humorist of to-day is reformed man iE comparison with the mir,h-maker who preceded him. (. E. Lewis, of the i Detroit Eyse Pyess, has been al work twenty years. but, his articles are just as fresh. and grea, deal more pol ished now than they were years ago. George Peck. of Petk's .Sas. is no,.A youth in the matter of humorous writing but no man in the world can equal him in making laughter for the million. Alex. Sweet, of the Texas Siftinss, after bring ing several daily papers into national prominence, made the .Siftins,s rich and famous. Bob Burdeue, when he steps
 
 enough to write, does some of the finest humorous work in the English lan- guage. w. ]. Hampton, after gaining a national reputation for the Steubenville Heyd!I. gave the Dyumm<y glide that places its articles before every reader in the country. Frank Gilbert, of the Evansville A,gas. is not boy, having for years been handling the mir,htul pen but his humor is fresh and glowing. There are numerous others-sober. indus trious men-men who love their calling. and who honor it. They go about work with system. When a red-nose bum mer goes into the office and says, Come down and lets take something,' they do not jump as though they had been wait ing for him all day, and were disap- | | | | I