Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-02
AMERICAN HUMoR1srs.
Mark Twain the Last of O brilliant
Band of Wits.

Fror, the Troy Press.
The appearance of a new book from the
mental storage taEk and pen of Mark
Twain Is an event in the world of letters
ana humor. With the passing of Samuel
l.. Clements Americans perceive the break
ing OF the link that binds the past with the
present OF American humor, If, aside from
Twain, the present can boast the possess
sion of any distinctive cultured humorist
Humor Is more rare than wit. France,
regarded as the wittiest of nations, has
out little genuine humor. England though
It's people are more slow of wit, has pro-
duced more humorists than any other ma
G G6n Inc name Of these is legion: from
Gnaucer and Shakespeare Goldsmith,
FIELDING, Charles Lamb, Dickens. Thacke-
ray and George Eliot down to our own day
they have been and remain the worlds de-
light and solace. Pages have been written
10 snow the subtle distinction between wit
ana humor. "Humor is the electric atmos-
phere, wit is the FASH" says one. Still this
olHerence can be better felt than described
Humor Is condition; wit theory. Twas
Inc saying OF an ancient sage, one Georgias
Leontinus. that humor was the only test
OF gravity, and gravity of humor For a
SUBJECT which would not bear raillery was
suspicious; and jest which would not
Dear serious examination was certainly
false wit.
Americans are less witty than French
men and they cannot vie with the great
english humorists in their own domain;
their own The first Of our national humor-
lists was Washington Irving. His ''Knicker-
Dockers History Of New York" was the
n M humorous book Of any merit published
IN america. Salmagundi," of which Irv-
ing was editor-in-chief, was our first humor-
Gus periodical. Its success proved that our
countrymen whose native literary diet had
nltherto been heavy and indigestible, could
Yanr cp{cx
some years after Irving our national humor-
ISIS came mostly from the south and south
west. Their fun was genuine, but it had a
local ana primitive flavor not suited to a
ten s' ioi eo'
LoWelfs "Bigelow Papers," which an
Peared at the time of the Mexican war. was
an event or the first Importance in the
history Oh political and humorous literature
In wit. scholarship and penetrat ting knowl-
cage OF human nature it took the place.
Whlcn 1t has ever since maintained of a
masterpiece. Age has only increased it's
Doth in England and America The test of
lts power and universally is the constant
quotation from 1t on both sides of the At
Iahtlc. Its drollery. couched in the most
prlmltlve OF Yankee dialects, had its seri-
Gus side, and exposed the evils of slavery
and the wickedness of the war of agrees
sion Waged by us against a friendly nation
IN It's behalf. Next to Lowell as a humor-
lowing Holmes. it is well not to forget the
Vermonter. John G. SAKE, who deserted the
green hills Of his native state for the steep
lncilnes OF that town on the Hudson SIX
miles below Troy
The later American humorists we all
know-John Phoenix. Artemus Ward Pc
troieum V. Nasty Edgar W. Nye. Eugene
fieid and Mark Twain. Each of these had
MS distinctive style Of humor, and neither
copied after another. All but Mark Twain.
VINO has OF late turned with great success
10 more serious subjects, have passed over
10 the great majority. To them all we
owe debt of gratitude. They apprecia-
Oily lightened the burdens of the world in
s sHowLls mat even the most serious situa-
ton has its comic side
"A little nonsense now and then
is rel1shed by the best of men,"
In Edgar w. Nye America lost the L. st
of Its professional humorists For Years
humor was his business, the means Ly
Whlcn ne gained an honorable livelihood.
ne was not always at his best He some-
times proved that
Even wits a burden when # ta1lrs too
long,
put MS humor was natural, exuberant and
OF sort peculiarly his own He never
.riheu with serious or sacred things and
never sought to raise a laugh at the ex
pense OF human infirmity deformity. In
LIS respect he resembled Eugene Field one
OF the rarest of American humorists
tnoush he did not. like Nye, make humor
ms PROFESSION. Field kept within the limit
OF becoming mirth and sent forth no arrow
barbed with malice or envy. He had a vein
oi tenderness and insight into child-life
winch was absent from his more grotesoue
contemporary, Nye. Both were uninua nsr-
scnalities and I'VE ne'er shat, Ioot -
the like again" opoi'