The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-01
SEATTLE. SUNDAY. JAN. 4.
A GENUINE HUMoRIsT.

genuine nuIQorlSt, tDaL Is, man d VII
and wisdom; man of sense ana feeling;
man Of sound head and manly heart.
Mr.. Riley needs not TO apologize for the
dialect in literature; so long as men
read Burns, and Tennyson's Northern
Farmer" and Lowell's "BigIow Papers"
they will no. need any argument for the
dialect in literature. AS well apologize to
child tor leading him out of the hot
house and well ordered garden. the city
park and the srnootn-shaven lawn up into
the woodland where the trailing arbutus
scents the air under the pines; where the
liverworts spangle the last years LEAKAGE
under our feet; where the shy-yellow
lady slipper turks among the rocky woods;
where the pitcher plant blooms in the
bog; where the silver bell of the wood
thrush tinkles sweetly in the forest.
No, Mr.. Riley. you did not need to plead
for the honorable place that dialect song
and story hold in literature. The Howells
and the James cult will pass away, for
they deal with the artificial and the tran
silent, but you, Mr.. Riley, will not pass
away until every honest human heart be-
comes as dried up and withered as the
conscience OF Wall street sharper; until
the old English sense OF Saxon humor has
become extinct; until the good old Saxon
words Of heart, home, hope and heaven
have dropped out of the dictionary. Your
poetry, Mr.. Riley. no more needs an argu-
ment in its defense for its existence and
IT claim to o high and honorable place
In literature than the wild flowers, the
wild birds, the mountain brooks, the
wild deer. or the hills and mountains on
which the wild deer roam. need argument
to prove their right to remain p art of the
diversified face of nature, even though
they seem inutilities and waste places to
those who think the world ought to be
nothing but vast stock ranch, q wilder
ness OF factories, vexing the air with their
tall chimneys, or q vast wheat farm or
cotton plantation.
We have called Mr.. Riley a true humor-
fist; man Of wit and wisdom; of sense and
feeling; of sound head and manly heart.
SO he is; he belongs to the land Of sweet
mesa and laughter and light in literature:
the land which Shakespeare, Montague,
Cervantes and many lesser lights have
worked; the land of Fielding, Goldsmith,
Burns. Walter Scott. Charles Lamb, Tom
Hood. Tom Moore. Hugo. Thackeray.
George Eliot. Charles Reade. Emerson.
Lowell, Bret Harte and Holmes: for is not
wit mingled with wisdom, sense warmed
aud lighted with feeling, the logic of the
head married 10 the moral sweetness and
Light OF heart that is at once tender and
true, the immortal charm OF all these men
% far apart IN the height aud depth and
quality Of their genius1
Your true humorist IL the man who
makes the body and form and Juice OF all
sound and lasting literature: he is the
fellow whose colOrs are always fast: he is
the philosopher Of The permanent as
separated from the transient In human
feeling and action. A long as men love
and hate; as long as men laugh and weep;
IS long as there are Wild birds and wild
flowers; as long as human hearts remain
untamably tender and true. SO long the
humorist is the immortal man in literature.
Your mere satirist il n different being.
Your humorist * an optimist; you satiriss
10 a pesslnlist; your humorist must there
fore be the prophet Of the permanent. for
the optimist IS right. if Victor Hugo was
eight when he e!oquent,y said Progress
10 the very stride Of God" Your pessimist.
since God reigns, never marching back
ward or even looking backward, is the
prophet of the transient. the present, the
chill fog aud mi4sna that obscures but
never ertingushes ;ne orb of dAy. Look
EE,-fy J. f.
men or women, sneak in the voice and &C
cent OF true humorlsts; Prince Hal. Hot.
spur. fauiconbrldge. Rosaiind, Perdita
Beatrice, Portia. Hamlet. while his cynical
wits are Fa!stnf. Lucio. lago, Richard.
Edmund. all rakes or villains. So in later
literature your satir!sts. your prophets Of
pessimism, are Swift. Pope. Churchill,
Byron. Poe. morbid men; the pure fame
81 healthful genius bsckened with the
eloom OF a diseased spirit
Humor Is abounding mental health; So
tire Is the quality OF your cock-eyed man
Of genius. Mr.. Riley is humorist, not a
satirist and cynio Ike Marx Twain. nor a
clown and contortioniss like Bill Nye. No
two men serve for better illustration OF
the difference between q true humorist
and q msrs shallow, fippsr;, cheap.
eackling oynic and clown than James
Whitcomb Riley and "Bul" Nye. When
James Whitcomh Riley writes OF she dead
soldier OF the Union Whist does he say?
kint they no wsy we can coax en- through
the roses Just ca say
They know that every Day on earih's their Dec
GRAFTON Dayg
We've tiled shsi--Ias and mo;hct--whars Kuas
takes his rest.
in THE oreasEd--ln h!s nniforn, ara hand:
scFost lis brest,
Ana tie nas 10 died fer, smilin' aai ar.rplin'
IL toe breeze
Above bis grsYe--snd over thst-tAe rob.a IN
the trees
That is Riley's simple. sweet, revereut
Lament for Fodder" where the tslesi
snd fAirest aud foremost were ali wede
away. When Mr.. Nye thinks o. n dead
Uuiou soldier IL only inspires him 20 grin
ami eaekle about tie farmer sAss vosed