The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-05
Perfume It, ana i4s

aroma evaporate5; polish it, and it is
dull and pOintlcss. 1t must still carry
tho element Of ~buffooncry, even if it
sometimes crates on refined ears, and
bear tho panS of suffering somewhere
III it FOR somebody.
Tho Good Old Jokes,
&c tins I,ase or the people. ths z,e;s;
body of nonthinkcrs, tho old, old Joke
is ever precious. 1t is greeted again and
again with laughter and applause, and
no matter how changed in dress or al
tered i'll expression it still goes. 1t
seems Il contradiction to add that it
goes because the majority of people can
not remember II humorous remark moro
than Il few days, and the dear old Joke,
with its long, messy whiskers, seems
new to most of them.
One may hear today upon the variety
stage the same old gags that our ia
theirs roared at 80 years ago, and in the
comic papers of this week read the Jokes
that broke up homes i'll Aryan noun
AIN regions before the dawn of letters
and caused the prophet to ask the CO.
nundrum: 30 grave, where is thy VIC
tory? o death, where is thy sting?"
There are styles in humor. To n
who has studied the subject distinct
geological eras mark the growth of fun
ny sayings. From the dwarfed court
jester Of the dark ages, with his cap,
bells and bladder, to tho funny man of
the comic press is seemingly u long
step, but the interval has been filed by
the coffee house wit, the stage comedi-
an, the circus clown, the minstrel end
man, the lecture bureau entertainer, the
travelling drummer and the comic art
list. To us in this enlightened age it
seems funny of itself that ut Que remote
period men and women laughed ut CO.
nundrums. That was all they had to be
hilarious with.
Then came tho age of puns. Once a
punster was tho equal of kings and
popes. He had free passes on the stage
coach and to the theaters. People stop
ped conversing upon religious or politi-
cal topics and held their breaths when
no was about to emit q pun, and his
clever sayings were repeated all over
town, generally as original with the re-
peater. He led conversations and led
them up to his puns, and he was not
shot or even indicted.
England today is the last refuge and
stronghold of the pun. There it still
Yields a feeble sway along with other
effeto institutions, like Imprisonment for
debt, D~unraven, etc, but elsewhere it
has been stamped out and branded as a
crime or misdemeanor.
Samples of English Humor.
There are, however, i'll England sew
eral humoristS who are of Il more adj
vanced type. whose productions have
something of the liveliness of the Amer
lean spirit. w. S. Gilbert and Jerome
*. Jerome often have spasms of fun
that seem to be spont?utoous and nnaf-
fected. Even Punch VI late has flashed
a spark or two of sedate merriment.
The following sample serves to illus
trate the assertion. An obsequious Gu
rate is pictured rs breakfasting with his
bishop, who remarks:
"Why, my dear Mr. Stiggs, 1 really
think You have 4 bad egg therel'
ooh, no." the curate replies; "parts
of it arc very good, I assure you'll"
Now, that's not bad for Punch, you
know.
But digress. The punning period
was followed by that Of humorous wri
tings like Sam Slick" the "Big]ow
Papers," Zone Hoss Shay Darius
Green" ETC., true humor which tool:
all hearts by storm. 1 am now speaking
of American humor, of course. This
was, properly considered, the beginning
of the present era. twas the period be-
gun by John Phoenix, continued by Ar
temus Ward. Bret Hnrte, Mark Twain,
Bailey, the Danbury News Man. Bob
Burdette, NJ. Quad. Eugene Field, Bill
Nye and a host of others, each in turn
taking tho popular fancy.
The essential quality of these various
writers cannot be. strictly and distinctly
specified, II cannot lay his finger OH
the particular Distinguishing feature of
each, but while these authors are dis
tinct III themselves there is a generic air
that marks them. as of n family, the
product of American soil and environ-
ment. With but few exceptions their
work is humor pure and simple, satire
being lachipg until the bloom of their
youth had passed and they had entered
into other literary fields or had heard
their OWE stories told as original by
several thousand other humorists. Each
had his own distinct era, being for a
time as popular as II new puzzle or u
patent cough mixturemntil another camo
who by "a fresher combination Of words
anc circumstances eclipsed the glory Of
his predecessor ana made his methods
seem stale.
Such work as was essentially COED OF
truly novel, such as tho "Squibob Pa
pers" Of John Phoenix, Harte's Coon