The Arizona champion., 1886-03-13
FUNNY MEN.

has to pay Tor making a reputation as a journalistic humorist. All hu- moIisls have balG heads and careworn looks. We Ill get eff little fun now and then. L2ugater is the spice of modern ll-, and a newspaper that never had a joke in it would be more drcary reading than the Lamentations of Jeremiah. But it is the profes- sional humorist nere alluded to, who mus; never lake up his pencil without saying something excru;iaIing, be cause he has the reputation of being funny man. If Mark Twain was to make a speech which combined the wisdom of solomon with the elo- quence oi Gladstone, all his listeners would be disappointed, because ihe author of "Roughing Il" never stand, mp 10 open his mouth but what the facial muscles of his audience begin to relax in preparation for the expcc ted "gu1lw," and if the orator fails 70 be as funny as his reputation de mands he should be, his auditors art disappointed and sadly remark that ,he humorist is becoming "pla!ed ou-
 Happy Artcmus Ward died in time to save his reputation as the greate,' humoyist of his country, but Twain, Peck, Burdelte, Lewis, Locke, Eugene Field, Bill Nye, and several others. have an awful future before them. They are doomed 10 rerpelra,e week. lyjoEes (no pun intcnded) until death shall release them from their talk. If all alleged wits had as much genuine humor as Tom Hood had, who died with one of the best jokes of his life on ms ilpS, they mlgnt nave an easy time Of it, but unfortunately for the Snal! army of second, class funny men that the press of this country is afIlic. ted with, wit or humor, to be anus ing, must be spontaneous. The mo- meAt 1t is forced--ground out as ii were--it ceases to be provocative of mlrth. Sidney Smith said that it re- qulrcd surgical operation to get joke into Scotchman's head, and some of the forced jokes of our pres eot humorous writers makes one feel that 1t must have taken a painful sur glcal operation to get it out of their heads.
 The worst feature about this class c! writers Is that in their desire to be ilrny, they frequently forget to be truthful. Laughable lying is prefer. a3ic to commonplace veracity. Geo. ". Peck has made us all laugh many t time, al the tricks of his "bad boy" He has written much that Is full of s,nulne humor, and there Is q manly .onesty cf purpose about the work of his pen that have m. d.. lis eff rs va'v- .Uie contributions to current literature. IGi lbe other d9y Mir. Peek passed through Arizona, on his way 10 the lac .lc coast, He had 10 grite a de- Sc'ipuou ot his jlurney 10 his paper, ,hc Milwaukee .Sn1, and of course he had 10 he funny or he woulau't be Peck, and to maintain his rcpulupn fs humorsr, he became reckless IT. hls sta,cmeuts' He says:
 ""ce' c..a'ry i, is. ! cl, ,,anl j,'e ns well auy o y, but think f s,n.b,I, should tcei he alom th, u,and ,qu.de nies Of tie portion of Auspua anl Cal,or. r'a Una; lh, lr.in has pl.s.d torousa th; Last iVo days, and ioan II Gu. and ,n.v wa3 i' was that played ,usa Gir.y Lie; On n.. l"licve, as peaceful q maa a, l am. that would hunt that man uy anl a,a him lp take Lack, and II he refused tU Jo sc, would Flii h;m In cold Dloot IL woIli be aa aw(u, ihingio saw any very large quantity Of that land oil ont9 man who never dlt uylhnJ criminal. 0, it Is onluely impossible lJ de scribe the country IL is not land at all II js worse than destr. l. is slpd anl s,oles, E..d not good sand and stones either. lhlt pan 0, ue c,gpry is jhe result If some ,io len, ccnyus.or Oi nature. tJc hlu,r.d. of niles Ih1reis no C.e,n thing, .udno live aui. nal or bird. Once in hundred mile, a COW or two would be seen, bgt there was nothing that scli-res7ec,mg COW could os,."
 The probability is that Geo. w.. Peck passed through Central Arlzona during the night, snugiy escouced in sleeping birth dreaming about some , new deYiiment for his bad boy. Eie rertainlY could not have looked upon