New-York tribune., 1902-06-29
is ART OF PUNNING LOSTp
NO LONGER ROYAL ROAD TO FAME-nn
FENCE OF THIS MEANS OF ADDING
TO GAYETY OF NATIONS.

What has become of the pun? Whether its rnsnr,
or its dement's be the greater whether IT h. N.
lowest form OF wit or when iudiciously used or.
OF the highest need not be debated. The fact re-
mains that the pun is longer what it used IA
oe-a royal road TO fame a wit. At best A pu,
ls made nowadays by a variety team on the stsss
apologeticaly, and if there is any laugh raised it ia
at the apology. The wits of to-day are famous bv
virtue of their slang or their brogue and il ia
uoI0tfuI II book full of conversational bon-rnos
sIch as have been collected from the sayings Of
foote or Hook, could be collected from any ten OF
then Perhaps punsters too have baco,,s
ciinerclahzed, and keep their bright thoughts for
lhe press The best pun looks cold and fat enough
III ~ print. ferhaps the gentle art OF punning has
died with the decay OF the art of conversation.
Several New-York men were discussing this ouss
ton the other day, and one of them who is one =,
the veteran public school principals of the civ
recalled the memory of who he said WAS
probably the last of the old school of pInsters
him to gro eoduent n & Safd6 95 TINS man M caused
The day will come he declared when the pun will viii
men Will play cieTeTly OF Woqds without afa sSsH S5sTs
and a!progss for the 2 Pleapre Of all He said:
ago in Cambridge. Mass. and who was school,
the GiverpH Of ST. IN u [%ds e0sgs and later in
sationalst and brilliant man, was probably the
Of Gf theP mfe gs1
early and often. and the common question among
pun?' But he seldom made pun merely from
hablt there was point 10 all the double meanings
mat ne perpetrated Once fellow professor in ST.
Louis stopped him they walking along ths
street to point out a curious sign
he said
oh. along Tweed answered he's only
joking '
7 remember another occasion when he was
puonc school teacher III CharleStOwn- There was
to be election of teachers that night and in
AFTERNOON Tweed met James Adams, who was
later Mayor of Boston. Hello. Tweed said Adams,
what if you should fail of reelection to-night2'
" Then said Tweed. I should be put out
Again he was at a dinner of the Boston School
governor The dinner was partly IN honor OF
George a. Walton, one of the agents of the Board
of Education in Massachusetts. Butler had few
days before in his characteristic fashion spoken OF
the board as an aggregation of old ladies and two
of them wear bOnnets-' The presiding officer intro
duced Mr.. Walton as 'one of those old ladies'
board
Tweed used himself TO defend the pun the
grounds OF its antiquity and renowned ancestry.
as well as its intrinsic worth. The Egyptians start
ed punning. so far as We know. ne used 70 say.
for they represented doctor by the outline OF
duck. Aristotle, Cicero. Erskine. Swift. johnson,
for their puns. he declared. and shall the
weapon that served them so effectively He SAD;
men who have sense OF something more tnan
the bald. face value of words. and he would no
more think of resisting his instinct in this respect
than to refrain from patting child on the head
His friends enjoyed his puns much the chill
dren did his affection
But said one of the other men in the group:
generation, would he not follow the trend OF the
times, which. they tell US. is utilitarian?
II think not. verbally
Some men can make good punS, but they starr 20
many people making bad ones that they should al
be suppressed
Isn't that" said the old schoolmaster. mildly
"a little like condemning the violin because 80
many people make fiddle oSSt?'