The Washington herald., 1908-06-14
BY JOHN $. HARDWOOD.

Very few Of the men who make the ma
tion laugh with the written joke began
life as humorists. The truth is. a major
lty OF them took exceedingly roundabout
ways to become full-fedged members of
the laugh-provoking corps.
The dean Of our present-day Joe Mlllers
none other than the white-robed Mark
Twain-was first printers apprentice.
then a Mississippi River pilot. then a
private secretary to his brother. who was
Territorial secretary In Nevada. before he
began building up a humorists reputa-
tion while a newspaper reporter and edi-
tor IN Virginia City. And quite while
before he had attracted more than local
fame as q funny man" he had tried his
hand az mining.
c. 3. Lewis On. Quad'D, at sixty-six
our second oldest humorist and still in
active harness. began life as a printer s
devil stuck" type, and otherwise
thoroughly learned the trade Of jour
neyman printer before he developed into a
year-in-and-year-ou producer Of fun with
the same characters. He also was civil
war boy soldier. rising from private 10
ment and having his blood spilled In de-
fense Of the country.
o. Henry. one Of the latest men to make
the nation laugh. got a lot Of the knowl-
edge that he has put into his stories AT
first hand as cowboy, sheep herder. mer-
chant. miner. druggist. and extensive
traveller in ordinary and extraordinary
places. Gelett Burgess. graduating at the
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology in
1887. was for three years a craftsman for
Il railroad. then an instructor Of topo-
graphical drawing. and finally a designer,
before he broke into the literary field.
Charles Battel Loomis who also received
his education IN a polytechnic institute,
held down a clerks stool Tor an even
dozen years.
Makes Laughter for Yankees.
Jerome X. Jerome. an English humor-
ist who enjoys the rather unusual distinc-
ton among his country's Joe Mnlers of
having made the Yankees laugh heartily.
was a railway clerk. a theater attache
and actor. a school teacher. newspaper
advertising solicitor. solicitors clerk.
and a reporter Tom Mason. literary
editor Of one OF the cOuntry's leading hu-
morous weeklies since 1893. was an Office
boy, later bookkeeper for the same firm.
and not until he became telegraph editor
for newspaper press association did he
have his first joke accepted and published.
When Champ Clark went TO Congress
from Missouri in 1898 and soon thereafter
began making the country laugh with his
maiden speeches and written Jokes. he
had behind him a record as hired hand on
a farm, clerk I'm a country store. school
teacher and college president. country
newspaper editor. lawyer and Office holder
George Ade like Mark Twain, NJ. Quad.
Jerome. Mason, and Clark experienced
the joys and tribulations Of a newspaper
workers life before he began 10 coin a
fortune by making his fellow beings hold
their sides over his slang words and
phrases. He began as a reporter on a
country daily. Mr.. Dooley, toO-or. 10
call him by the name his parents gave
him. Finley Peter Dunne-is n former
newspaper man. and Ellis Parker But
Ter, when he had his first bit Of humorous
work accepted by New York editor was
on newspaper. As for Edwin a. Oliver
OF the Yonker's CN y Statesman. and
famous among humorists Of all degrees
and distinctions as the father Of the now
common conversational joke. his whole
business life has been spent in the Office
OF the Statesman where he worked al
the case" when a youth.
Trained as Reporters.
Thus, Il IS plain that a goodly proper
ton Of the noted humorists Of the day re-
cciyed their literary training IN newspa-
per offices Il is equally true that not a
few of them became saturated with the
Western spirit and way Of looking az
things before they began 10 attract atton-
tion as cOiners Of laughs.
Though horn down East. In Boston. and
educated there. II was on the Pacific
Coast that Gelett Burgess spent his first
working years as railroad craftsman.
university instructor. and designer There.
too. he began TO attract attention in the
literary world as editor of the Lark and