Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-02-18
AMERICAN FUN.
Irreverent and UnpoIished. but Never
Immoral.

IrrGEeFent anu GsAlDAs
Immoral.
The London Standard noticing the
death of Josh Billings, speaks thus oil
the growth OF a certain sort OF Amerl-
can fun: The war brought into camps
and trenches men from every part OF
the country. They exchanged experi-
ences, and, asthe phrase went, swap
ped stories" Moreover, out oil that
CHASTITY struggle emerged an immense
mass of "war humor." The "Orpheus
C. Kerr Papers and Petroleum v.
Naseby" were the prime favorites IN
that species of fun, and theexperlences
of marching and counter marching
have given a tone to the humorists
who have since then cometo the front.
They have, however, drawn on a lar
wider field than their predecessors.
mark Twain" who is, perhaps, the
most widely read of all his class,
tineed those sketches which SO
delighted Mr.. Darwin with much OF
the old humor of the Mississippi, on
which he was born and bred. But,
like Bret Harte, he also taps the IN
exhaustible reservoir of California
drollery. and from the observations
suggested by that wider roaming which
is the marked characteristic OF the
new American. Charles Dudley war.
ner is a quieter, more refined sayer OF
good things than his friend and near
neighbor in Hartford, while Mr.. Lee
land. who seems to use his wit as
a mediumtor his philologicallore,is, SIN
his s.Breitmann Ballads and other
works, scarcely American at all. joel
Chandler Harris, one OF the many adj
mirable writer's whom the South has
produced since the war, takes h
negro folk lore as his theme, though
now and then he also produces sketch
es of southern life more in the old
style than anything which the latter
day humorists care to attempt. But,
following these men, though at a con-
siderable distance, are what may be
called the newspaper carlcaturlsts,
such as Mr.. Heber Clark, who writes
under the name of Max Adeler,"
Robert Burdette, James Bailey and
Charles Smith, who is better known
as "Bill Arp" Sometimes their
humor is q little strained, and often
it is very local. In every case it is dit
ierent from that Of England. 1t has
nothing in common with Fielding, or
Smollett, or Thackeray, or, happily,
with Radicals or Nillon. The differ
ence between opera bouffe and an An
gIo-Saxon farce is the difference be-
tween the humor of the Frenchman
and OF the English in America. The
snob and the husband are not satiriz-
ed. The American devotes his domes.
tic jocosity to the whimsicalities OF
the small boy, the widow, the mother
in-law, the bully, the visionary specu-
lator, the gamester and the CONNER
cial traveller. Fighting and money
getting afford the principal subjects,
and in the South it is mainly confined
to the former. 1t is seldom deep,
though always clear, and depends
mainly on exaggeration and a blending
of Jest and earnest, which some one
has described as the singing of comic
words to a sad tune, or telling a pre-
posterous story with a grave face.
" Den MI. IOMtll ueCldICS tlldG a. hC-
gro was so black that Charcoal made
q chalk mark on him, " or that a wood
en- shingle was painted so like marble
that it sunk, he illustrates the
leading feature of American humor.
Again, when "Artemss Ward"-whom
most people now know to have been
baptized Charles Browne-tells us Of
a young MAJ who claimed to be ex-
empted from serving as a soldier "be,
cause he was the only son of a widowed
mother-who supported him." we
laugh, not at the humor of the situa-
tion-for there is none-but at theun-
expected turn the excuse takes. This
was the key to the fun of Josh Bill.
ings'' and the legion who have initial
ed it. They show no reverence for
anything or anybody. They are not
polished gentlemen, or even men OF
high education,l like Lowell and
Homes. But if sometimes vulgar, and
often far-fetched, there is this to be
said for THEN humor-it is never inn
moral, and is therefore very unlike
that which derives its inspiration
from the other side of the channel, or
even from the full-bodied wit OF
the Georgian and Carolinian times.