The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-04-21

The Funny Man.

Kind reader. as you sit by Your nice
warm fire, or in the rich and variegated
plush caparisoned seat of palace car,
reading your fayorite speciality paper,
and shaking your sides with hearty
laughter, and spreading your eyes with
happy surprise and JOY, did it ever oc-
cur to you that, perhaps, when the ar
tiele that claimed your attention and
admiration was written, load as heavy
as human sin and as gloomy as funer-
al 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 his front
door; or 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
appolntments-ye 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, rollick-
ing with merriment, sandwiched with
sense and sentiment, soul and pathos,
he sits, grim and stolid, mayhaps, in a
cheerless room, void of that which
brightens and enlivens, and grinds
away, paragraph. sketch and poem,
poem, sketch and paragraph, week i'm
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 in
habltants He never smiles, but there he
sits ike machine, scratch, scratch,
scratch, until the paper is filled, and
then moments respite, and at it again.
Those who read the funny man. as heis
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 circus, negro show, camp
meeting and barbecue; of Christmas,
Fourth of July and Thanksgiving day all
combined. 1t is impossible to divorce
him from fun and folly They look at
him as a wonder. And he is, but not the
living, moving frolicking school-boy
wonder they would fancy him. The fun
ny man, as rule, is drone in social
circles, poor company, horrid CONVEX
ser, and out of place elsewhere but in his
sanctum. Those who make the most
and purest 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 melancholy, give one the
blues. and short 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 abroad |
sickness, death, marriage or birth, |
his columns must sparkle and bristle, |
TEEN and bubble with good, bright and |
wholesom humor that amuses and |
cheers the sad and depressed 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 toward max
ing it brighter and better, and drawing
nearer to earth and earth far
ther from Hades. Thousands look to
him for their fun as naturally as they
look to their physician for medicine or
their butcher for meat He must play
well his part; move along the process
sion will run over him and trample him
under foot. No tagging, no stopping to
to the i'll, console the weary
1r bury the dead, but his mission is to
amuse the living, and just in accordance
rs he does his work here will be his re-
ward hereafter. He has been given these
special qualities, rare and priceless gifts
and must use them for the benefit and
amusement of his fellow
creatures. Truly. the life of funny man
is not all sunshine, and his bed is not
always roses, yet he probably has his
share of the good things of life His life
s not wholly gloomy one, yet it is not
nearly so cheerful and happy as the
reader would picture. J. Fleming
IN TeTas Sunny C}tme