St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-06

less involuntary playmate, victim or fel-
lOw-cOnSpiratOr, as the case may be, was
grocer, the owner of the corner store
in the country town of which the boy
was native. The father and mother of
the boy were good, commonplace Amer.
lean people, with sundry little human
frailtieS and stupidities, of which their
offspring. with lack OF reverence some
what passing the average, even
of American youth, failed not
to take advantage. The boy
certainly made things very lively in
that Western town not only for his par
entS, for the grocer and for the inhab
itants generally. but also for himself.
The humor of his ineXhaustibie pranks
won the heart and tickled the risibili-
ties of tue great American people, says
Julian Hawthorne in an Eastern eX-
change. A weekly record of his adj
ventures was copied in newspapers all
| over the country, and when they were
collected in book form everybody
bought copy of them and chuckied
over them anew. There is probably no
other volume in our literature which
provokes more and more Irresistible
! laughter to the linear inch than does
the book of the adventures of Peck'S
! Bad Boy. There are three other books
analogous to this which will at once re-
! call themselves TO the memory: Being
a Boy" by Chlrles Dudley Warner;
the "Story of n Bad Boy" by j. B.
Aldrich, and The Adventures of
"Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.
Each of these is excellent, but /
| doubt whether all of them together have
chad as many readers as "Peck'S Bad
| Boy" The future historian of the
| human nature of the nineteenth cent
uryi must take account of it. and he
may set it Off against the enforced de
c0rum and SubmissivenesS of the Puri-
| tan boys of the seventeenth and eigh-
| teenth centuries, including George
! Washington, and reconcile the contrast
| accOrning to the laws of heredity and
eyOlutiOn-if he can.
Chosen Governor.
When. short time ago, it became
| known that the author of "Peck'S Bad
| Boy" had been chosen governor of the
! state OF Wisconsin, it is probable that a
good many people felt surprised. Ger
tain upright ana conscientious authors.
here and there, may have decorated
their aStOnlShment by glowing con-
ments upon the condition and prospects
of a literature which permitted the per
| petratOr of such volume to hold one of
| the most honorable and responsible
| offices accessible to American citizens.
what! the man who collected that
tissue of vulgar absurdites! TO put
| him on a civic level with Lowell, Motley
and irving? Our literature is going to
the dogs mot to speak of the comedy!"
| And they would say, what was the use
of writing beautiful poetry and elevated
fiction if the purveyor of such abject
| rubbish was to get the reward.
Now, no one pretendS that the book
| IN f,P
healthy vulgarity in it; or that its nu-
| NOR is not of an obvious and boisterous
| quality But then there is a great deal
| of VulgarIty in the American people.
| and widespread fondness for coarse
practical joking. And the book is pop
| ular because it reflects what we are and
what we door would like to do did
opportunity and resource admit. Peck's
boy, whatever else he is Or is not, is an
| American. and Americans wish TO be
! told about themselves, especially if they
can laugh at the narrative.
Whether it b., advisable to initiate the
popular numorist in august positions is,
| of course, another question altogether.
| don't suppose it would have occurred
to the citizens of any State-eYen Of
New Jersey-tO make Artemus Ward,
for instance, its governor; but it does
not therefore follow that man who has
written funny book is necessarily in
capable of doing anything else. Rabe-
lais wrote funny land an atrociously
vulgar book some three or four hundred
years ago; and he was the most learne d
imam of his time, and certainly one of
the most advanced thinkers. Humor,
even of the least subtle kind, has never
been Incompatible with sound and eff
Gent masculine ability. And those who
could read between the lines of Peck's
book could see that there might we'll be
a great deal in the author beside the
power of laughing with them over the
escapades of an outrageous young scape-
| grace.