The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-01

me nne native literary genius Of the South
slept. Slavery sti1ed the free expression
Of noble political ideas, and the inioIencc
o. It's civilization was repressive of serious.
INDUSTRIOUS literary effort. But with the
9eatn Of slavery and the replacement Of
new civilization the South walked from
its long lethargy and began to give free
play to lts fine natural genius for the liter
ature OF poetry, fiction and humor Its
Eneilsh stock had always preserved its
purity Tar more successfully than the
Nortn, which had been colored and quail
ned by the inferior infusion of foreign
emigration, and even where there was
not actual mixing Of bloods there was
the debas1ng influence of civic contact and
social aftrition. The native English stock
OF the South included, therefore, larger
number OF natural born humorists than
the North. and beyond that the South was
lana where the people furnished more
PRIMITIVE types of character, and more
life and conditions still survive than the
Sorth. The various types of the old
coutnern patrlcian manhood; the lights
ana shadows OF eccentric humble life ex-
hibifed by the slave-bred negro; the sla-
very-stunted poor white; the wild traits
t - s snoss Aibanians Of America,
the South, rather than the com
parativeiy artificial civilization of the
North, the finest feeding ground
fnr the born poet, novelist and humorist.
In the quarter century that has elapsed
since the war nearly all the best names
added to the roll of American literature
are Southern bred. Cable, Charles Egbert
Graddock, Joel Chandler Harris, Opie
Reed. Constance Harrison. Maurice
Thompson, w. w. Page, f. Hopkinson
smith and many Others of younger fame
and lesser note. The South is the opti-
mistic, easy-tempered, genial section Of
the country; the natural breeding place
and feeding ground of humorists. The
North, east of the Mississippi, is too full
Of Puritan-inherited pessimism for genu-
inc humor; the North, west of the Mississ-
ippi. IS arrogantly optismistic, but it is at
the same time too restless and impaticntly
striving after pelf to breed humorists or
poets.
The North, therefore, hereafter will con-
tinue to breed coarse, rank, rough, politi-
cal satirists Of the school Of Orpheus G.
herr and Nasty; acute cynics. like Mark
Twain; stupid, cheap cynics and contor-
tionists, like Bill Nye. and vast crowd Of
Bohemian pea-shooters, calling themselves
wits. But our land Of true humor, of
fresh fiction, that touches elbows with
hearty, unspoiled, If not unspotted, genu-
Inc human nature; our land Of eloquence,
HSsAsSS oA.o Sou6 VIII NC TIC oOutu rainier
than the North; there are no humane ap-
peais or sympathetic voices heard today
at the North above the shrek and
rattle of railroads; the nasal ac-
cents Of planning mills: the roar of blast
furnaces; the hum of factories and the
dust Of trade. save the wailing of pathetic
poverty and the signing and crashing of
the teeth OF vice in great cities, and these
are not the nutriment of humorists, but
the stock in trade of the prophets of pes
simism and coming sectional woe The
South will continue to nurture the true
American humorist in distinction from
the professional American ssfunny mxn."
In Shakespeare, Falstaff Faulconbridge,
Prince Hal, Hotspur, Lucio, Rosalind and
Sir Toby Belch all make us laugh, because
they are all true humorists: while Sir
Andrew Ague Cheek makes us laugh. not
because he is q hnmorist, but because he is
fantastic, silly, drunken dude. Dogbcrry,
Shallow, Elbow and Slender make rs laugh,
not because they are humorists. but be-
cause they are vain, stupid and altogether
ridiculous folk. 1t is something SO with
the true humorist, and the fellow who
only thinks he is humorist, because his
broad grin, his grimaces and his con-
tortions make us laugh. Suppose we
eliminated from .Pickwick Papers" every-
thing of sentiment, benevolence. gayety
and geniallty and left nothing behind but
the Wellers and the Fat Boy, that is,
nothing but the broad grins, vulgar winks
and chnckles. how high would Dickens
rank as humorist?