Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-13
"HE passing of Mark Twain was
marked by the doleful cry of
'.WhO will take his Dlace2" in

"HE passing OF Mark IVAN was
marked by the doleful cry of
"Who will take his place." in
which lament none joined more loudly
or sincerely than editors, publishers,
managing and assistant editors, and
readers of the fifty or more magazines
whose ten million copies each month
supply the reading public of the
country with the major part of its
light literature. Not one of these
purveyors of literature that does not
profess himself anxious above all things
to secure a good line of high class
original wit; not one that does not
read eagerly and hopefully the first
page, if not more, of every manuscript
bearing the most distant resemblance
to humor that comes his way; not
one that does not live on from day to
day, buoyed up by the hope of dis
covering a new Mark Twain in some
unexpected place.
They are all very much in earnest
too, these dealers in letters, l
am quite willing to admit that they
know their business, especially when
| consider the enormous sales of their
periodicals, the fact remains that
during the last quarter of century
not one of them has developed a
humorist of the first rank, while the
daily press of the country, although
unable to offer anything like the COM
penSation or the fame that may be
obtained from magazines, has given
us all our fun makers.
1t is true that a humorist has no
sooner proved his quality in the
columns of the paper of his town than
he is flooded with invitations to con-
tribute to magazines; but it is always
newspaper editors who discover him
first.
Artemus Ward was a newspaper
writer in Cleveland, Ohio, long before
he came east to take charge of Vanity
Fair" and win international fame.
Bill Nye was also a newspaper writer,
and remained one, as the author of
weekly syndicate letter, until the day
of his death. Eugene Field made his
reputation first in ST. Louis and Denver
papers and then on the Chicago press.
as did Peter Dunno, George AIDE, and
that rare and original artist and writer,
John T. McCutcheon, whose. Bird
Center" first published in 1.-THE
Chicago Record-Herald, is one of the
finest examples of gentle, native humor
that this country has produced. Sewell
Ford, whose inimitable Shorty Nc
Cabe" and "Torchy" stories put all
your readers into good humor every
Sunday morning in the year, is another
graduate from newspaperdom, am
told. George T. Lanigan, the latter
day Esop, was on the night desk in
1.-THE New York World" Office when
the cablegram announcing the death of
the Ahkoond of Swat was announced.
1t was in the columns of that paper
that his fables were originally printed.
Frank R. Stockton was newspaper
writer before he went to st. Nicho-
las" and although Bret Harte first
made himself known as writer of
serious stories in the pages of "The
Overland Monthly" am sure that
his early humorous work was printed
in newspapers. o. Henry and Will and
Wallace Irwin also did their first work
Besides these there are scores of 70
writers, like Burdette of THE Daily H
of The Danbury News" Lewis of IT
Press" White of The Chicago Tribu
Hoyt of THE Boston Post" each one
serves niche in the Hall of Humorous
Indeed, to give list of graduates fro
daily papers would be to print a direct