Arizona republican., 1904-05-30
WORLD HUMORISTS
Especially Those Who Drop
 Into Poetry
A Convention of Them Will Be One of the Features of the St. Louis ExpO- sition This Week.

ginning tomorrow, an attraction within its gates such as no other exposition ever presented. It is a feature unique in the history of worlds fairs, being nothing more nor less than a conVen- tion of poets. For the entire week the American Press Humorists will be pres lent within the grounds, participating iE various functions and doing the Pike and other exposition features.
 Not ail the members of the or ganzation known as American Press Humorists are poets, but more than , score of them are well known writers of verse for the daily and weekly press, and few of them-though it is said they blush to confess it-are magazine poets. The remainder of the membership of eighty-five is made up of just plain humorists-men who write funny things for the newspapers and other periodicals. Some of the poets also claim to be humorists, and a considerable squad of the members are well known platform entertainers, i such as Robert J. Burdette, Edmund Vance Cooke, Strickland w. Gillian, A. L. BiXby and Eli Perkins.
 | The American Press Humorists were organized last May in a meeting at Baltimore, called by Henry Edward Warner Of the Baltimore News, who conceived the idea and confided h;s plot to Frank L. Stanton of the Atlanta Constitution. MT. Warner, who for some years had written a daily depart ment called "Sidelights," wrote to all the special press humorists whom he knew, suggesting national organiza- ! tion. The responses were hearty About seventy men, from New York 1 to San Francisco, approved the idea, and in May 9 meeting of half the number was held in Baltimore, 8 per- manent organization was effected, and i MT. Warner was elected unanimously as the first president. Since then Mr. i Warner has become managing editor of the Press at Binghamton, N. Y, a new levening newspaper. Strickland w. IGilIilan of the Baltimore American and I also Of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau,
 was chosen vice president of the as4 lsoeiation, while Robertus Love of St.
 Louis. author of Poems All the Way from Pike" was made secretary y-treas- Eurer. St. Louis was selected as the place of meeting for 1904.
 l The second annual convention of the |
 worlds fair function. Headquarters of [the association for the week will be at lthe Inside Inn, the only hotel within | the exposition grounds. An attendance i of about fifty members. many of whom
 will be accompanied by their wives, is expected. The entire week will be de- | voted to Functions" in honor of the i Visiting humorists, and to seeing the i exposition under the guidance of the
 St. Louis members, including Willis Leonard Clanahan of the Post Dispatch iand T. K. Hedrick of the Valley Weekly.
 Among other things, the weeks en- ltertainment includes receptions at the : Missouri. Wisconsin and Kentucky state buildings, and it is probable also
 that reception will be given, if there { is an open date, by the California com mission at the picturesque old building reproduced as the Golden states pa vilion.
 1 Wednesday, June l, is American
 Press Humorists' day at the worlds | fair, and on that day there will be spe- tcial music appropriate to the occasion. including the playing of President | Warmers National Humorist March" i by Sousa's band. The poets and hu- morists, who will wear badges denot- ling their special calling, are liable to
 become victims of many facetious sal
 lies at their expense, the general pub i lie grasping this opportunity to pay back some of the courtesies which the
 joke writers have given them from
 time to time
 The humorists will visit the Pike Iof course. June 4, the closing day of tthe convention, being Pike Day. it IS
 expected that the jokesniths and
 verse-vendors will be largely in evil ldence. In fact, it has been suggested
 through an eastern magazine that they be given place in the grand Pike parade of Orientals, camels, donkeys and other amusing animals. and there
 Is said to be a movement on foot to include the American Press Humorisfs
 Tn this wonderful spectacle. with the poets in iron cages and the jokists rid ling Missouri mules.
 | Another uggeStion-from an out
 sfder, of course-is that a dog feast be arranged for the humorists, particular " the poets, in the Igorrote Village on the Filipino reservation. If the poets will eat dog" this person insinuates.
 it will aid their doggerel digestion
 seven cities, the same number that claim the honor of being the birth place of Homer. are clamoring for next years convention of the humorists, These are Milwaukee, San Francisco Detroit. Cleveland, Buffalo. Niagara
 Falls and Pittsburg. Present indica- Itions are that either San Francisco or
 Milwaukee will be selected.
 Functions during humorists' week outside the grounds, but yet of a worlds fair flavor, include grand banquet on the night of June 3 at the
 Mercantile Club, given by the Business
 Mems League of St. Louis. of which
 William FleweIlyn Saunders. a former newspaper man, is secretary and gen. teral manager. About three hundred
 men have accepted invitations, includ- ing more than two hundred members of the league. Hon. Nathan Frank, pub
 fisher of the St. Louis Star and q for
 mer congressman, will be toastmaster
 The address of welcome is to be de-