Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-05-02
IDEAS OF HUMOR CHANGE.
GomicaIities ReIished a Generation
Ago Are Now Regarded as Very
Stupid.


stupid.
There appears to have been a vast
change in the pictorial work of the
humorous periodicals in the last few
years, so much so, in fact, that the
humorous ideal seems to have been
shifted. few years ago the illustra-
tions in a certain class of these pa
pers were almost invariably of some
artistic merit in a serious though
often unmeaning way; now they are,
for the most part, grotesque and
broadly comic. Before the Joke was
to be found in the text beneath the
picture. Now it is in the picture itself
and often the text is dispensed with
altogether. Most of the humorous
papers still retain one or two artists
whose work is of the finer order, as
a connecting link between the old
manner and the new and in order
that he may furnish slight coun-
terpoise to the comic preponder-
ance. But the man whose wares are
most readily accepted and which
command the highest figure is the
caricaturist or the original" who
has discovered some distorted point
of view of things. Their pictures
amuse in themselves and the text, if
text there be, is factitious aid, says
the New York Post.
A New York artist who used to
command a comfortable living by
drawing for the humorous papers
comments rather ruefully on this
change in style. Have you OBJ
served he said, chat the he and
she picture has gone the way OF all
! flesh? There is no market for it
now. | used to support myself do
| ing he and she pictures and nothing
else. They would take as many of
| them as | cared to draw. All that |
| had to do was to put man and a
woman on bench or a sofa or stroll
ing down a shady lane, or sitting on
| the seashore, and their funny men
did the rest. ! would not know what
| joke was going with the picture un-
til | saw it in the paper. The jokes
were always 'He-then his remark,
and 'She'-and her reply. That is
the way this type of picture got its
name.
Finally, however, the editors of
| these papers drew the artistic reins
| tighter. They said that there was
nothing in the expressions of the he
and she to indicate that they were
saying the lines the funny man had
| given them. Sometimes, you see, |
would have a man leaning carelessly
over the back OF a rustic seat smil-
ing down at a girl, while, according
to the lines, she was giving him the
'mitten' The members of the he
and She school were gradually
crowded out by the comics and if
they could not adapt themselves to
the new style had to seek other
fields. OF course | do not mean to
say there are no more he and She
pictures in the comic papers. They
will appear, but you will observe that
they are not only very well done
from an artistic point of view. but
| that the action in them squares with
| the sense of the lines beneath.
What, is the reason for this
change in the humorous papers|'
echoed the artist to a question.
"Well, it would be hard to say. 1t is
more than a fashion, think. Call it
rather an evolution. One reason,
believe, is the great improvement in
| the last few years of the illustrations
| in the serious monthlies and week
lies. The public sees so much excel
| lent pictorial work in these nova
DAYS that it would be surfeited if it
| found this work in the comic papers
TOO. They turn to them for the
funny DictureS"