The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1903-08-28
oID-r1MR MISSOURI HumoR.a
Tofty-Ffve Years Ago They Used t.
Rely ON the Almanac for
Funny Reading.

An old-timer who listened not lon.
ago to Mark Twain at club dinner il
this city and who laughed at Simeon
Fords wit was talking afterward tt
one OF the committee on entertainment
says the New York Sun, and amons
other things. he said:
| You people have so much OF thi:
sort of feast that / question whethe,
you appreciate it. All you have to dc
when you want to get together is to
press the button.
You get tired and you fill up your
rooms or homes with clever people
+ unique entertainments, and the cares
which 1nfest the day-you know the
rest. 1t is not strange, perhaps, when
you think of it, that we are not quite
so frequently entertained or amused
40 years ago. We were fewer, we were
scattered, and maybe we were easier
pleased because we did not have our
entertainment on tap.
Why. do you know, we used to rely
On the aimanacs for our jokes? We
used to keep almanacs on the center
tables for our guests. When the con-
versation Jagged, and the company be-
gan to look at the clock on the shelf,
someone would pass the almanac and
we would have some fun.
The home newspaper had no de-
partment of humor. II a joke crept
into the columns 1t was credited to the
almanac. Some of the editors used to
get advance copies of the almanac and
play a scurvy trick on the druggist
by printing the jokes before the drug
gists got their consignments
Occasionally home genius unload
ed homegrown fun on the editor But
there was not so much of the home
grown article then as now. do remem-
Der one, but he did it for pure fun.
He was a banker, too-Col. A. M.
Saxton, president of the first bank Of
my town. He was the living image Of
Mr.. Pickwick. He wrote occasionally
funny pieces for the old St. Joe Ga
zette long before the rebellion.
For long time the people thought
the editor wrote the pieces, and he was
always asked to step up and have some
thing when he was in sight. I don't
remember how it came about, but it was
finally learned that Col. Saxton wrote
the pieces that gave the paper its boom
Then the people got to going to the
bank. hoping to hear Saxton talk, but
he was as silent ano as far-away in his
looks as the Sphinx. Then he quit
writing for the paper, because he said
1t hurt his business to be known as q
funny man.
Occasionally the paper printed the
articles of Philander Doesticks, and
after him, Artemus Ward. Josh Bill
lings puzzled the public for awhile.
We didn't know whether he was funny
or ignorant.
But he struck st. Joe with a lee
ture. The editor of the Gazette re-
ported the lecture straight away. SPELL
ing correctly, and the public decided
that Josh Billings was no wit. His
reputation was frostbitten in our
town.
"Once a year we had one-ring cir
Gus come to town. The Gazette ed
tor always had a seat down by the
,ingside, and whenever the clown
aid anything the editor jotted it down
IN q paper he held on top of his stove
pipe hat, and we had circus jokes for
several weeks after.
"A little later young lawyer came
xvv1 nf$ oxI aff of~
ional reputation as a politician, wit
md after-dinner speaker. That was
Zen. Jim Craig.
HE was a member of the lower
louse Of congress; afterward presi-
lent of the Hannibal & st. Joe rail-
Dad. and he became a close friend and
.dviser of Lincoln. But before Craig |
,ot to be so generally known he be-
anne famous in his town as wit
Whenever he sat in front of the old |
avern in the afternoon of a summer
ay the crowd assembled to hear him
ell stories. I've seen the street con-
ested with teamsters and draymen |
to him, and the business men
q the vicinity would willingly lose
ustomer in order to go over and hear
ZEN. JIM Craig's jokes.
"But funny men began to be more
newspaper wits began to
Increase, and Gen. Craig began to grow
Id. Notwithstanding his ability as
awyer and railroad manager. his rep
tatiOn rested on his inimitable wit |
Though wit and humor are abundant
o-day, and In general demand, verify
elieve that II Gen. Craig should re-
Urn to earth he would have batch
I stories Of the undiscovered country
hat would cause him to take first
lace in the list
sThe after-dinner speaker of the
me of which | speak was unknown.
here were banquets and public occa-
ons, but the speakers were either
onderous or of the spread-eagle make.
he popular speaker was permitted
, tell an anecdote, but he was ex-
ected to raise his hearers to the
Sies, and funny stories do not have
lat effect"