The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-08-28

raj surroundings, the people OF which
paid up their subscriptions, if at all, in
the form of pumpkins and potatoes, Edi-
tor Peck experienced a sort Of hand to
mouth existence and sank deeper and
deeper in debt as the years rolled by.
Even under these trying circumstances
the genial humor would not yield to the
shadow Of adversely.
Mr.. Peck met his creditors at his Office
door with joke, dispelled their frowns
with quaint story founded ON incidents
in tho local field and sent them forth in
roar Of laughter, freighted with the
idea that Peck was the jolliest and best
fellow in the wide, wide world. Thus
for years the city of La Crosse monopo-
hzed the humorist. Her merchants sold
him their goods and for the time being
received their pay in laughter without
interest. Finally the future governor
joked himself sufficiently into the conf
dence of hardware dealer to secure
coal stove on credit. and out of that
stove came to him both fame and for
tune in single bound. The heater was
duly set up in the editorial home and a
scuttle Of coal borrowed from neighbor
to test it.
The result of that experience was given
in the columns of his paper. In the ex-
uberance of his delight the picture of the
subsection Of q western Wisconsin win
ter was exaggerated. The house was
heated to a degree even, hotter than the
fiery furnace into which the Persian
kings command consigned Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego.
The sufferings of Peck, his wife and
the servant girl were depicted as they
rushed from their rooms to the parlor in
which the stove was sending out heat in
solid chunks and light enough to illumi-
nate the neighborhood and start an
alarm Of fire. They enveloped them
selves in blankets and made desperate
assault on the blazing monster, pulling
out dampers and pushing in dampers,
all to no purpose. That coal fire blis-
tered the paint and warped the furnish
ings of the editorial home and placed
the editorial family on diet Of liver at
cents per pound for an indefinite pc
riod while repairs and replacings were
going on.
Peck's few hundred subscribers laugh
ed in public and in private over the
matter and discussed it and laughed
again. A city paper copied the account
with proper credit. 1t travelled the coun-
try and was forgotten. Winter gave
place to spring and summer, and cold
weather came on once more, and with it
q flaming poster sent out all over the
country. Upon dead wall and fence
and bulletin board there was displayed
large picture of the Peck family in
their frantic endeavors to subdue that
stove, while below it in letters an inch
long was printed the story in full, cred
tied to Peck's Sun.
This circumstance made George w.
Peck governor Of Wisconsin. 1t in
vited the attention OF the people of the
United States to a humorist. obscured by
primeval surroundings, who was worthy
to take front rank among the mirth
provokers of the world; wit who had no
occasion to violate the rules of orthogra-
ply to bring the risibles of his readers
into full play; man who saw a comical
side to every event and incident in life
where huIpor was permitted to stray;
n heart full of sympathy, soul filled
with mirth that became incarnated in
the productions of his pen and shone like
gems of the first water.
Subscriptions TO Peck's Sun rolled in
like n mighty tide. The few hundred
copies of the issue increased by thousands
and by tens Of thousands until the lit
tic city could no longer furnish the
means for its publication and circulation
10 the confines of the continent. IL was
no longer local paper. The people OF
Texas and Maine and California were
entitled TO more than an experience Of
Smith, the Main street grocer, or Jones,
the hardware man. Peck's Sun was re-
moved TO Milwaukee, and there the great
humorist reached out over the whole
world for objects 20 clothe in the merry
garb Of his imagination. The current
events of the day were seized upon, and
the veinsof humor underlying them were
brought TO the front by his facile pen.
Those readers who have seen Mast, the
caricaturist, with single stroke Of his
crayon change Aminadab Sleep into
laughing rake can conceive how this
Mast of the pen could with an added sem
tence change an ordinary event Of life
into roaring farce,