Arizona republican., 1908-12-06


 the literary markets. is a new joke. The next rarest is an old joke re- vamped that it looks new. The liveli- est hunt among publishers of books and magazines today is for real hu nor.
 See that drawer" observed the editor of a big New York weekly to an aspirant for literary honors who felt sure he could write the right stuff if he only knew just what the editor wanted. Nearly empty, isn't it2 That's my humor drawer. Any one who can help me to fill it is persona grata in this office"
 The editor, like every other, had discovered how rare genuinely funny writing it. To discover the humorous books with which the Christmas book stalls are stocked and the humorous articles which now and then occur in the magazines, is the publishers most serious occupation. Anything that contains a laugh a line is receiv- ed gleefully in the editorial offices of half a hundred American publishing houses.
 Both schools of American humor tAt m AtLh pA- <A4lg bbhN NliO NeiAA bt either broadly or delicately witty finds a hearing these days-as well as many who think they are able to be either and actually are neither.
 The distinction between the subtle and the obvious groups of humOrists was amusingly traced in a recent Harvard Phi Beta Kappa aftsf dinner speech which introduced to the learn ed society Rev. Samuel NJ Brothers, a publishers "findC a Unitarian cler- gyman known mostly not so long ago as President Eliot's pastor, but now duly qualified as a literary successor of Oliver Wendell Holmes, who is expected to produce something bright whenever he touches a typewriter to paper.
 The point was made in this address that most American humOrists have belonged very clearly to one or the other of these schools; and consulta- tion of such a manual as The Early American Humorists," a handy refer ence book that gives selections from the writings of many, who famous in their day are now in too great danger of being forgotten. discloses
 
 jokers who had buffoon gifts like 'Artamus Ward" "Orpheus C. Kerr" Bill Arp" Josh Billings" "Petro- leum V. Nasby" and "Danbury News man." and on the other side the lit erary wits like Washington Irving, George William Curtis and N. P. Will lis, whose quiet humor more closely resembled that of the great English writers of the eighteenth century. The discoveries of humorists by publishers in the last few years have not been so numerous. and many of them have been disappointments because the writer who has started in by being uproariously funny often conceives an idea of reforming the world through his humor and thereafter becomes deadly dull. This tendency of the jester to aim to be a preacher has been very apparent in the history of American humor.
 Just as Dr Brothers is perhaps the most valuable recent discovery among men who write, a woman whose hu mOrous powers were quite unsuspect- ed up to a short time ago. outside of a circle of personal acquaintances. 7 world is still laughing over the fail ure of Mark Twain, himself the worlds leading humOrist, to recOg nize a professional hand in the first of the Letters of Jennie Allen, which Miss Grace Donworth, a Provi dence woman, wrote as a practical joke.
 The story is that while some good ladies of a San Francisco relief com mittee of the Rhode Island capital were engaged in asserting and pack ing clothing sent to them for the benefit of victims of the earthquake and fire one of their number received a letter signed Jennie Allen" which requested that a certain garment should be returned to her since 1t had been forwarded by mistake. The spelling and phrasing of the com munication were fearful and wonder ful, and half from curiosity it was answered. It was also shown to number of people and a copy of it came into Mark Twain's hands, which he twice used as subject matter for more or less serious speechifying, as at an annual dinner of the Associ- ate0 PreSS, ana WHICH ldlei tiS 1oiih plified Spelling Society gravely issued as part of one of it's leaflets. The letter turned out, of course, to be the production of Miss Donworth, who was a member of the committee. After the lady had admitted her guilt she amused herself and her compan- ions by adding more letters, gradually describing the entire Allen" family and it's acquaintances. Some of these were published in the Ladies' Home Journal. Now that in their complete ness they have been issued in book form the whole country is quoting Miss Donworths witticisms, such as MT. Spinney says you can rise with the larke if you've been on one the night before," or He is a Maine man, but a perfeck gentleman. So is his mother" or again, We are going to live close to my folks so I can help them when they need me, and his mother is going to live with us. My cup runneth over"
 In spite of occasional broad touches the general quality of Miss Don worth's work puts her in the same class with the more subtle school Of humorists like Mir. Brothers, Robert Grant, Witter Bynner whose recent ode to Harvard" contains some of the brightest touches of fancy of any recent poem; Ralph Bergengren, in ,,.bou, ColIiar'c KVaeklV inst now an