The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-04
A PLEA FOR CANADA.

writing to F. E. Huddle, editor of the Bloomington TyongA Hail, says:
 In your issue of the 7th, notice let ter from A. s. Martin. Toronto, Ontario, en,reating you to order from himself a carload of funny articles to be pub. lished in your already popular paper, in order that the 7Hr0ngh Mail may at once head the procession of American humorous publications. think, sir, that the gentleman's pleadings should be se- riously considered, if for no other reason than to encourage the fun repositories of Canada to pour our their vast store of mirth-provoking writings into the col umns of your counhy's funny papers. MT. Huddle, did it ever strike you real hard, hard enough to leave a dent, that when Bill Nye, Bob Burdette, Geo, Peck, Opie P. Read, yourself and others, who have convulsed the worlds millions, have gone where the high temperature will not permit of too much sport, that the fun-loving people of the United States will then have to look to Canada for what has heretofore been supplied by their ellow.countrymen2 And, sir, if would-be Canadian contributors are ig. nored at this time, they will be com pelled to retaliate in after years, by re- fusing to allow their witty productions being printed on the other side of the line.
 It will be copgealing day for our American cousins if things are ever al- lowed to go as far as l have anticipated. There is no doubt but this thriving Do- Minion is brim full of concealed merri- ment, and all that is now required to start the flow is for some enterprising journalist to sink a shaft in or about Toronto in order to strike the fountain head. Any one who has been a reader of the Toronto Globe, Hail, NeaVs or Grip, could not have failed to notice their respective columns teeming with witti- c;sms. Oh, yes, MT. Huddle, the woods in and about Toronto are full of it, and there is no doubt that in the long years of the future, when American literature is all run down at the heel, and only such productions printed as give a man the deepest color in blues, and makes the gloom around him so thick that sunlight wouldn't penetrate it in seven ye ITS, then it will be that the congregation of the United States will rise up as one wo- man to turn their faces Canadaward that they may drink down a few paragraphs of condensed laughter penned by the Clo6Ts horse editor, the NeaOs' agricul- tHlral editor or Vennor's almanac man. 1t may be that am over estimating the resources of my beloved country, and it may be just possible that Toronto has im- ported those spirit reviving men from across the border. Should such prove to be the case, it will go hard with us in coming years, for read in your paper to: day that Swift wrote: "There never ap- pear more than five or six men of genius in an age" and as have named them in the foregoing epistle to Huddle, want
 o ask what are we going to do when they have gone hence? We can't count on any out of the coming generation, for as soon as boys get along to fifteen years of age now-a-days, they at once become cew boys, bank clerks or dudes.
 trust you will not neglect the means within your reach, (S752 co each), and that you will encourage Canada's feeble efforts, until we are able to raise up few more who will be able to take hold where American humorists let go, and perpetuate the good work which has already got such firm hold on the hearts of the best people in our land.
 l have been a reader of Pec&s Sas, ARKANsAw TRAVELLER, 7HyoxgA Hail, etc, one or more of them each week for over two years, and have been delighted with the pathetic, as well as the ridicu- lous pen pictures of real life that appear in those papers. think such reading better fits a person to wrestle around with the stern realities of this existence, than half the books published at the present day, and believe were they more un- versally read there would be more real whole-souled, heartfelt sociability and good feeling existing in all classes than what we sec.
 Give Canada . chance, kr. Huddle, to work in her little say occasionally. and to show our appreciation of your willing ness to suffer, some of us will drop in on you one of these days and help lift the demijohn out from its secluded lair, and drink with you to the success of America's humorous papers.