The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1886-08-18

VI QudO.
c. r. Lewis, DIETER known n N
Quad" Z is perhaps the most unique ans
genuine humorist this country has eve
produced, excepting only Artemus War
and Hosea Biglow.
M Quad is not q humorous artist :
q boss mechanic who manufactures joke
as a carpenter does packing-boxes, witt
a saw and jack-plane and much exuda
ton of perspiration. He is naturally ant
spontaneously funny. Humor gushe
from him like champagne from an un'
corked bottle, bubbling and effusiye and
drenching US, whether We will or not
with laughter. And there is wisdom
with his wit-trong, homely, common
sense, mixed with a racy, unctlous hui
NOR which makes his wisdom as grateful
to our taste as whale oil is TO the paLats
of an Esquimaux. He is not a . product
of the soil,- with a local flavor He is 81
universal relish, as is witnessed by the
wide popularity that the Detroit Free
Press owes TO his contributions.
1t is not generally known when OF
where he was born, MOI is il a matter OF
much consequence, since his career did
not begin till he was blown up, some fif-
teen wears ago, on an Ohio river steam
boat. He is, perhaps, the only example
of a man who has been lifted into fame
by being tossed n hundred feet n the
air and coming down, more dead than
alive, to tell the story. He did this.
Standing at his printers case, when he
was so far recovered as to limp about, he
put into type " How it feels to be blown
up" and the whole West burst into laugh
ter. That laugh made an Quad !" ia
nous. He. was then transferred from the
composing-room q the editorial depart
ment, and ever since short extracts from
the Free Press have been copied into
every journal throught the country.
About ten years g he invented-or
rather created-"Hi liz Honor" and "Bi-
jah," and Brother Gardner" of the
" Lime-kiln Club"-characters totally
dissimilar, but each as natural, original,
individual and ludicrous as any in Amer
lean literature. "His Honor" presides
over a police court, and makes sage refiec-
tons upon men and things as they coIne
into his field Of view. Brother Gard
ner is a shrewd and quaint gentleman of
color, who has all the idioms and charac-
~teristics of his race, but is not q burlesque
of our colored iellow-citizens he han
dies his own people gently, but s~atirizes
the foibles, f~railties and weaknesses Of
the whites inimitably. His sayings might
be termed explosive wisdom-the reader
is sure to imbibe a wise thought, but it is
certain to explode within him. "Arte-
mus Ward" created one character +; an
Quad has given birth to three, and each
one has, during a period of ten years, de-
lighted millions.
The man is precisely what we are led
to expect from his writings He is by
turns " His Honor" Bijah and Broth
er Gardner" with the dry hunor and
quaint wisdom that is peculiar to each
character. IF there is an odder man
than he in the country" said a Detroit
gentleman to me not long ago, We would
like to have him sent along with the cir
cus.' His looks, his manner, even the
tones of his voice, are peculiar and eccen-
trio, He talks as ne writes, and always
without any seeming generalization. His
/" den" as he calls his " sanctum," in an
upper story of the Free Press building, lisa
curiosity shop filed with odd mementos
and knick-knacks. Here is a bit of rope
that helped to hang a murderer, and a
pair of shackles Of the old slave time
there are bullets from Gettysburg, pow
der TASKS from the Merriaac, and swords,
sabres, muskets, and. shot and shell from
a score of battle-helds while around the
walls, side by side with portraits of Sher-
idan and Custer and busts of Grant and
Lee, are pictures of dozen of the most
noted criminals. But the oldest thingin
the room is a slender man of about forty.
with closely-cropped gray hair, heavy
mustache, keen, intent eyes, and an earn
est, somewhat eager expression, who sits
at an old-fashioned table and looks up
with a smile Of weleonIe a. a stranger en-
tiers his apartment. This is an. Quad"
known among his personal acquaintance
a. G. b. Lewis ; and he works away at
that table eight hours in a day, writing,
at high pressure, short paragraphs or po-
litical leaders, and now and then seeking
relaxation in Il little merriment with q" BIZ
jah and I" Brother Gardner" For his
best work is done ass relief from the dali
" drudgery of Journalism. J
The r~evisers have rot been able to
amend the text Woe unto you when all
men shall speak well of you,r and if il is
to be taken literally, M. Quad 4" is in a
bad way, as all his acquaintance unite
in saving that he is temperate, social, do
iiltSuc, hi~nu-ncdflcu n toNtf ol Ills lTitilus
and a hater of nobody. He is also, they
say, open-handed, and so given to charity
that, though imposed upon seven times
in a day by fraudulent mendicancy, he
again seven times in a day empties his
pockets to the pleadings of distress. He
is also said to be modest, and not at all
pulled up by the fact that he has a week
ly audience of a million, nearly one-half \
Of whom are matter-of-fact Englishmen.
who take him with their beefsteak and
ale, as a sure help to a healthy digestion.
He is spoken of as odd and eccentric, and
he may be, but | incline to the opin-
that this popularity is due to the fact
that nature produced him in one of her
genial moods, when she would do the
world a kindly turn by b~estowing upon
il a gentle soul, who should do US good
spreading for Us a wholesome feast of