St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1892-08-06
MIR. DEPEW ON HUMOR.
The Value Of Wit to Public Men.

/
"Why is it that so few public men are
; humorists3' Mr.. Depew was asked tbs
other day
''Public men are very shy of humor, y
: was the reply. General Garfield told
me that he had a special talent in that di-
rection, but made up his mind early in
his career that it would ruin his ambi-
tons if he yielded to it, or cultivated it
and that he succeeded in SO completely
eliminating the faculty that he neither
could say humorous thing nor under
the exercise of my own talent in the line
of humor if l ever expected political re-
cognition or preferment The idea has
always been, and Garfield was an extreme
believer in it, that if speaker or writer
was in the habit of indulging in humor
or wit the public would remember only
what amused it, and no matter how able
he might be, or how learned, he would
be reckoned simply as jester"
'What have been your own observa
tons on this point?'
"A study of the lives and works of our
public men demonstrates how thoroughly
committed to the idea they have been.
There is not a joke, nor a mot, nor
scintilla Of humor irradiating the Revolu-
tionary statesmen. There is stilted dig
nifty about their utterances which shows
that they were always posing in heroic
attitudes. If they lived and moved in
family, social, and club life as we under
stand it, the dismal gloom of their COM
panionship accounts for the ecstatic en-
joyment which their contemporaries took
in the three hour sermons then common
from the pulpit.
AS we leave the period of Washing
ton, Hamilton, Jefferson, and the
generation. The only relief from the
tedium of argument and exhaustless logic
is found in the savage sarcasm
of John Randolph which was
neither wit nor humor. Probably
the most brilliant man in the next
period-that Immediately preceding the
Civil War-was Thomas Corwin. He was
the idol of the people and literally swayed
the multitude as he pleased by the power
of his eloquence.
''But the most potent factor in the de-
struction of his enemies and the buttress-
ing of his own cause was his inimitable
wit and humor. In broad craftsmanship,
solid requirement and effective eloquence
he stood above the successful mediocrity
of his period-the Buchanans and the |
Folks, the Franklin Pierces. and the
Winfield Scotts-like a star of the first |
magnitude above the milky way But in
later years he thought his failure to reach |
the supreme recognition to which he was |
entitled was due to his humor having |
created the impression in the minds of |
person."
A witty illustration or an apt story
will accomplish more than columns of |
The old time audience de-
handed speech of not less than two
hours duration and expected three The
audience of to-day grows FESTIVE after the
irst hour, and is better pleased with for
y-fve minutes. 1t prefers epigrams to
arguments, and humor to rhetoric. It is
till true, however that the press pre-
ents to readers speakers who INDUCES
n hunor so much only of this part of his
fort that he is in serious danger of re-
Giving no credit for ability in the dis
usslon OF great questions, no matter how
onspicuous that ability may be. The
uestion is always presented to frequent
peaker whether he shall gain the ap-
lause of his audience and lose the fiat
ering opinions-of his critics in the press,
r shall bore his audience and be compli-
rented for wisdom"