Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-03-28
The Humorous Letter.


The Tribune recently printed Lon
don dispatch concerning the recent per-
sonal encounter between Mr.. Whistler
and brother artist named Stott. 1t
appears from this that some words took
place between them during the course
of which Mr. Stott casually remarked
that Mr.. Whistler was versatile liar
and an accomplished coward-or re-
marks to that effect. Upon this, the
dispatch informs us, Mr.. Whistler adj
ministered "some rather severe blows
on Stotts head"-we suppose If that
able newspaper man, Mr.. John l.. Sui
livan, had been reporting it, he would
have said that Whistler "got Stott's
head in chancery and thumped his
brain-pan with the raw 'uns." After
this, Mr.. Whistler kicked Mr.. Stott out
of the room.
The dispatch now goes or TO say that
Mr.. Whistler subsequently wrote a
humorous letter to the club committee,
giving the facts attending the case, and
claiming that the measures he had
adopted would prevent in future MEM
bers of the club being made subject to
insults" Mildly speaking, we should
say this kind of treatment, diligently
pursued, would have n tendency TO dis
courage insults. Especially if Mr..
Whistler kicks hard.
What will strike the average reader
most forcibly, however, is the 'humOr-
GUS letter. feature. How much it
soothes the feeling OF a man who has
had a number OF rather severe blows
administered to his head and been
kicked out OF a room 10 learn that his
opponent is explaining matters in ''hu-
| morous letters" it is hard TO guess. II,
/ however, there are to be any humorous
! letters at all, clearly the gentleman who
remains in the room must furnish them
the one who has been assisted out is
! in no frame OF mind for that style OF
| correspondence.
Perhaps it Is too early 10 predict the
! possibilities of the humorous letter in
| affairs of this kind, but if Mr.. Stott
| comes out smiling to-day or tomorrow,
and says that the letter has calmed his
! feelings, and that he is satisfied, the
usefulness of these light and graceful
eDistles will be clear TO everybody. II
two men have n belligcrcnt meeting
anywhere let the victor write a humor-
Gus letter telling all about it, and the
! injured one will doubtless come out and
say he feels better. Tho soothing pow
er OF the humorous letter, when applied
10 broken head, has never, perhaps,
been given half the credit due il. In
the future instead Of ducls and bitter
animOsities, we may have only the hui
morous letter and peace. 1t Is quite
possible, il those eminent Kentucky
practitioners, the Hatfelds ana McCoys,
had tried the fanciful and humorous let
ter instead OF the blunt and plain-spo-
ken siX-shootcr and the cold and disa-
greeable double-blrrelled shotgun, all
bloodshed might have been avoided.
The dream OF universal peace may yet
be realized through the humorous let
ter.
Should the humorous cpistle succeed
in private life, why could it not be eX-
tended TO public matters? After Bis
marck, for instance, has bullied our Mr..
Bayard for some time, and, Us we say,
! kicked him out OF an island, he might
write a humorous letter and smooth
the thing over. Would il not, perhaps,
be good time for Mr.. Bayard himself
TO write a humorous letter about the
Haytian atfair?-he has got that for
midable power in just about the same
condition that Mr.. Stott was when he
landed out doors. Anything beyond
the first attack may be unknown in war
when the light and graceful hum
orous letter comes to be fully recog-
ni2ed.
But it Is probably better not 70 ex.
pect too much of it till we SEQ how Mr..
Stott takes it 1t hardly SCENE as il
it would be a particularly successful
pacifer. We can only wait and see how
il works in Stott's case, and if he seems
to like IT, il can be tried further. =