Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1883-07-28
The Funny Man.

The Funny Man.
Kind reader, as you sit by your
nice warm fire, or in the rich and
variegated plush caparisoned seat of
a palace car, reading your favorite
specially paper, and shaking your
sides with hearty laughter, and
spreading your eyes with happy sur
| prise and joy, did it ever occur to you
that, perhaps when the article that
claimed your attention and admira-
tion was written, load as heavy
as human sin and as gloomy as a
funeral procession may have rested
upon the writer's heart; shadow
dark and sombre may have spread its
wings over his soul? Perhaps bit
of white ribbon or black, may have
marked bis front door; or a doctors
carriage stopped at the front gate.
The writer of that which amuses and
charms is human being-with all
their aches, pains, troubles and dis
appointments-yet to read him day
after day, and week after week, one
would scarcely credit the assertion.
While his writing is light and airy,
mere nothing bubbling over with
fun, rollicking with merriment,
sandwiched with sense and senti-
ment, soul and pathos, he sits, grim
and stolid, mayhaps, in cherries
room, void of that which brightens
and enlivens, and grinds away, par
agraph, sketch and poem, poem,
sketch and paragraph, week in and
week out, rarely looking from his
! paper on which he traces, in almost
breathing characters, the words and
lines that charm, amuse, and even
convulse with laughter, the millions
of earth's inhabitants. He never
smiles, but there he sits like ma.
chine, scratch, scratch, scratch, I'M
til the paper is filled, and then a
moments respite, and at it again.
Those who read the funny man, as
he is called, think what happy,
merry, jolly soul he must be What
a happy life is his, they think and
to think of him is to think of a cir
Gus, negro show, campmeeting and
barbecue; of Christmas, Fourth of
July and Thanksgiving day all CON-
bined. 1t is impossible to divorce
him from fun and folly. They look
at him as wonder. And he is, but
not the living, moving frolicking
schoolboy wonder they would fancy
him. The funny man. as a rule, is
drone in social circles, poor COM
pany, a horrid converser, and out of
place elsewhere but in his sanctum.
Those who make the most and pur-
est fun on paper are very dry, have
little to say, and scarcely know or
care for anything outside of their
work. They are welded to tit is
part and parcel of themselves.
Their very looks, generally melan-
choly, give the blues, and a shor-
stay in their presence gives one the
"James-Jams," and all day with
one would certainly render doctor
and drug store necessary. No
matter what happens at home or at
broad sickness, death, marriage or
birth, his columns must sparkle and
bristle, TEEN and bubble with good,
bright and wholesome humor that
amuses and cheers the sad and de-
pressed as well as the light-hearted
and gay children of the earth. The
world must be amused, and he who
has essayed the role of funny man,
jester or amuser, has taken upon
himself thankless task. He must,
to hold his place, do his part to max
ing it brighter and better, and draw
ing Heaven nearer to earth and earth
farther from Hades. Thousands
look to him for their fun as natunal-
ly as they look to their physician for
mecicine or their butcher for meat.
He must play well his part; move
along or the procession will run
over him and trample him under
foot. No tagging, no stopping to