The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-04-19
s ESTABLISHED In
Z MARCH. 1S47.
[Arkansas Traveller.1
A Bright Paragranher.


It is all right for a man to publish
presumably humorous paper and
write articles presumably pleasant,
but the man who yearns for reputa-
ton and tortures exchanges with
please copy requests, is an exaspera-
ton unto his more sensible cotem-
porary. 1t is well enough for the
funny man-the most despicable ap-
pellation in the language mark an
occasional paragraph involving some
interesting current discussion, but
the practice of getting off a good
thing" and framing it with blue
marks, is below the man who actually
possesses merit. Nine times out of
ten man marks his weakest work.
As rule, he is incapable Of Judging.
Reproduction is not the result Of IA
voritism. Favoritism may stimulate
local celebrities, but the papers pub
lished for the public carefully select
tdeir reprint" f" regardless of the ex-
istence of friendship. A young gem
tleman, evidently graduate Of some
college, who publishes small paper
in Western town, marks every paper
he sends to this Office. On the margin
of recent number he says: II don't
see why the paragraphers should not
have ring unto themselves. | can
aid your paper and you can aid mine.
All L need is for some one to start my
paragraphs on the rounds" The fol-
lowing are few marked paragraphs:
Goal stoves should not be used in
Winter, for then we want warm
stoves"
"Say, is the blacksmith forger?-
Er. Don't know, for we are not
shoe-er."
"a milkman may be true, but still
he is coward" ;"
These you will at once perceive, are
very fine fragments Of humor. Cir
culation is all they need, is in fact
more than they deserve. In several
respects the young gentleman seems
to have pretty fair sense. For in
stance, he missed an issue of his pa
per several weeks ago on account of a
rush of job work. In this he dis
played ability, for job work pays bet
ter than humor. Ii you are requested
to choose between puns and job work,
take the job work. If you are called
upon to decide upon the laughable
merits of castor oil or puns, render
your decision in favor Of the OIL The
English language has been a great
sufferer. Verbs, nouns and pronouns
have been twisted into the corkscrews
of lingual distortion.
The punster's day of greatness is
gone, young man. There was a time
"a fitful, nervous, ephemeral time
when the punster could secure lee
ture engagement; but now he is neg
lected and compelled to work or
tramp for living. When a punster
is particularly worn out he may Sc
cure position on the London Punch;
but American publications, which |
glow in the spirit Of that true humor
which, some great writer remarked,
ripens slowly, do not want him to
camp in their neighborhood.
There is difference between par
agraph and sentence containing
mashed word, young journalistic gen.
tleman. A column of thought, a
bubbling, boiling spring of humor can
be expressed in a paragraph; but very
little of anything can be expressed in
a pun. Charles Lamb, Theodore
Hook, the poetic Hood, and the i'm
mortal Shakespeare, to say nothing of
a few celebrated Americans, have
made puns dance in portrayal and
glee, but the average dis
torter of words can only come to
grief. Any man who would be so
old in attempting fun and so excru-
bucolic in the manner of
as to say that in Winter
we do not want coal stoves-mean-
ing cold, of course should be COM
pelled to ride lame steer.