Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-10-04
AMERICAN HUMOR.

IL 'iieIe is oile UllnS more tnan another
which lily becomes a writer for the daily
press, it is to show envey, spleen and
malice toward his fellow writer, because
the latter is more successful than he, in
turning paragraph to suit the public
sense of the humorous or ridiculous.
Such is now the case with the Cincinnati
Enquirer which dismally croaks as fol-
lows:
American humor is becoming rather
scarce. few years ago the literary markets
of the world were overstooked with Ameri-
can humor, but somehow or other the stuff
spoiled on the hands of the first purchasers,
ana to-day 1t Is almost impossible to get a
decent specimen of pure, original humor
'Artemus Ward was about the first Ameri-
can humorist. There were few before his
day, but they were sad failures"
In fondling the lugubrous Enquirer
man the Kansas City Times says:
ut might be proper to inquire right here:
What Is meant by American humor? If it
consists con of bad spelling, poor English and
perhaps it is well that American humor rose
and fell with "Artemus Ward" Gosh Bill
lings," "P. V. Nasby" and the dabblers IN
border dialect. 1t is we'll that the sunny
side OF the writings of Irving, Holmes, SAKE
and Lowell is forgotten in the tributes to
Bill Nye" and j: Whitcomb Riley, not to
mention Opie Reid, of whom the Enquirer
speaks in praise. Taking such types in
Illustration, American humor is at low
ebb, and the world is better off that it is so.
But the Enquirer falls into the error of CON
rounding American humor with the labored
attempts of professional funny men, and
a nj md
hcation OF the national sense of humor
rests wholly upon the efforts of these desig-
mated shining examples
In the foregoing we have the opinions
OF just two out of the thousands of writer's
OF the daily press, and both in sense
agree that American humor-distinct-
lively Amercan-is on the wane, or never
existed since "Artemus Ward" ceased to
write. This is, OF course, from their
standpoint, as they see humor, but there
is very large contingent outside of Gin
cinnati and Kansas City whose sense of
the ludicrous and humorous is touched
by different means. For instance, when
Field Marshal Halstead gets the drop on
and scoops the Enquirer, the whole
world, all OF it but the Enquirer staff,
would laugh at the antics of "Johnnie"
when he learned of it. OF course
johnnie could see no fun in it, but
that would not detract from its mirtll-
power on others. Again, when
that genial and gentlemanly, not to say
sedate man, DR.. Munford, lodged calbre-
"A pistol shots, aimed around horse
car, and saved his life by miracle, he
could not laugh, nor could his staff, but
at this distance it possessed the elements
OF genuine American humor, and nothing
but a respect for fellow-professionals kept
the paragraphers off. Webster defines
the word humor as follows: "That quail
Ity OF the imagination which gives to ideas
a wild or fantastic turn, and tends to
excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous i'm
ages or representations. Neither of the
writer's quoted above will care to quarrel
with Webster, so upon that definition
et us examine the stock on hand. Who /
has not laughed and cried with "Biiah ,
md His Honor" in the Detroit Police
Jourt?; and who OF all the thousands of
nen who have read the doings of these
worthless have not benefited by it? What
words OF wisdom, wit and keen satire
urk in the pompous utterances Of "Bro.
iardner" OF the Lime Kiln Club" and
What better educator OF the shiftless and
lomadic colored-man can be devised?
Who has not laughed and cried with
5urdette in the great range of human
PASSIONS OF which he is the master and ON
which he plays with master
'and? Who has not felt as if he
would a dide" following "Peck's Bad
Boy" and Opie Reeds inimitable negro