The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1903-03-25
EVOLUTION OF HUMOR.
JAMES L. FORD BELIEVES SATIRE
WILL SOON BECOME POPULAR.
Seeing Somebody Get the Worst OF u
UnderIies All Funny Happenings the
World Around--AlI True Wit Must
Have a Foundation In Sincerity.

numOr Of tOuay WIN tnat OF the So
called newspaper school, that -four
ished from quarter to third of
century ago.
II was at a time when the entire
American nation seemed to be liter
ally hungering after something funny
that "The Danbury News Man" "The
Detroit Free Press Man." THE Bur
lington Hawkeye Man. and a score
of others of their class sprang into
n sudden local renown which, in many
cases, grew into national fame. Their
humor was, as n general thing, of what
is known professionally as the aero
batic" school. That is to say, It was
founded on human catastrophes of the
sort incident to the treacherous ba-
mana peel, the putting up of the stove
pipe, the return from the lodge, the
depredations of the goat and the per-
versities of the yellow dog. In the
humor OF this school, inebricty, in it's
many droll phases, played part
whose importance 1t would be hard to
overestimate.
We have outgrown this school at
the present day, but let us not sneer
at it, for, after all, 1t was true, ster-
ling humor, founded on the same
deathless principle of seeing some
body get the worst of II underlies all
funny happenings the world around
the same principle that forms the
backbone alike of Thackerys satire
and the early English jokes of the
pulling-a g-a.chair-from.under variety.
Moreover. 1t was clean, honest hui
NOR which served the double purpose
of educating the popular taste and de-
veloping a few writer's, like Mark
Twain and Eugene Field, who are now
a source of national pride.
For my own part, | look back with
feelings to tender regret to the days
when humorist could not only write
1000 words upon opening a bottle of
kumyss or 1900 about losing collar
button under the bureau, but also fear
lessly offer 1t in the marts Of litera-
ture. Those were days when humor-
ist could set up his workshop in some
pleasant country place, and with no
stock in trade save such familiar
properties as the mother-in-law, the
goat, the stovepipe, the banana peel
and the lodge grind out living that
at least gave him contentment and
good health. Once or twice a month
he would visit the city, bringing with
him a basket of his wares. Most of
the publications in those days dealt
exclusively in acrobatic humor, with
the exception perhaps Of one which
had what was called "a refined fam
lily circulation" and was, therefore,
made the victim of stories about Our
little four.year-old," or "Our friendly
W., who lives in X and is quite a
wag in his way" No acrobatic jokes
could be sold to the editor of that
periodical, except those from which
the curse had been craftily removed
by crediting them TO Captain X. of
the Forty-seventh Massachusetts reg
iment.
In the early sos the growing popu-
larity of Puck" life" and Judge"
led to the establishment of pages or
columns of original humorous matter
in vast number of periodicals, Great
ing demand for humor great enough
to overtax the capacity of the regular
| ly accredited members of the craft. 1t
was this extraordinary and unlocked
| for call for humorous matter that leu
| q vast number of men and women to
| abandon such serious pursuits as the
cultivation of the soil, the cleansing
| of household linen, the mending of
tinware and the picking of huckleber-
ries in order that they might become
| American humorists. But in spite of
| the competition of this cheap un-
| skilled labor, the professionals profited
| greatly by this active market and the
| art of nursing n joke and causing II
| to crystalline into dozen or more
distinct marketable forms. not one of
which could be detected as a plagar-
ism Of any Of the others, was corried
to a higher degree of perfection dur.
ing this period than ever before in the
history of American letters.
| The best of the humorists, however
| sought wider field for their efforts in
the pages of the magazines, the &C.
| ceptance of one article OF story being
deemed sufficient to change them from
mere funny writer's to literary men,
and adding materially to the value OF
their signature.
| At last the public began to tire OF
humorous pages made up of para
| graphs, verses and two-line dialogues
-"short stuff" as it was called-and
displayed a marked preference for the
Sunday humorous article signed by
some well.known name. 1t was on
this wave of pupular taste that Bill
Nye, who had made his first reputa
tion on a western newspaper, came
into great popularity as the pioneer OF
the syndicated weekly article, which
at the time of his death, brought him
an income of 5000 a week and rem
dered him prosperous to a degree thai
the humorists of an elder day never
dreamed of.
Bill Nye was the last leader of the
race Of American newspaper humor