The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-02-06

to foreigners because tnes %" =:
typical American qualities III - ~
rectness Of narrative, in Its ecohoHi
Of details. in the b~usiness-nke Ell
fciency with which 1t goes about us
work There is no formal
ton: il lust begins. 1t does not ran
g,,isn 10 q c~onclusion; 1t SIMPLY
stops. It's brcvity. too. is cnaIacteiio-
ticai,y American. 1t consumes IN the
reading about the same length OF
time that is spent on Il 5diilc ~ ~
ball or baseball.
Rnt a more notable service rem
dered by the American short story,
especially since 1870. is that, more
than any other form OF literature. IL
has concerned itself with local color.
local characters. local history ana
traditions. We have learned TO kno"
the different sections OF our own
| wide oun chiefly through the con-
tributions OF our short story writer's.
New England life is reproduced IN
the works of Sarah Orne JeWett and
Mary +. wilkins; the Middle West
| lives in the works Of Hamlin Garland,
owen Nister and Mark Twain; n
Far West has its historian IN Bret
Harte: and the South mas us ln.er-
prefers in George w. Cable. Miss
Grace King, Joel Chandler Harris.
James Lane Allen, and Thomas Nell
son Page. other nations have popu-
larized their history through hiStori-
cal novels; since 1870 American writ
ers have popularized their history
through short stories. Europe knows
us better, therefore, or at least has
the opportunity of knowing us better.
through our short stories than through
our poetry or our novels or our
formal histories. It should be said
tina the excessive use OF dialect IN
American short stories since 1870 has
prevented our later writer's from be-
ing read as widely as they would
otherwise AVE been. In spite OF the
growing European interest in the
negro, for example. no n has at
tempted Il translation of the Uncle
Remus Stories.
| need hardly say that another
cause Of foreign interest in Ameri-
can literature is the prevalence in it
of American humor. Whether we
funny folks From Benjamin Frank
lin to Mark Twain Americans have
been the chief p~urveyOrs OF whole
some merriment. We have not only
fired the laugh heard round the world
but we have done more than any
other nation to democratize laughter
itself. Pretension. hypocrisy. conven-
%tionality. pomposity-these are the
targets. AT bottom" says Dr.. Var
Dyke, "American humor is based upon
the democratic assumption that the
artificial distinctions and conventional
phrases OF life are III themselves
an1using.'
When Gladstone was asked what
: he considered the leading character
| istic of American humOr he prompt.
5 ly replied, "Exaggeration," and illus.
trated his point by the story Of az
American merchant who. when thu
. price of ink rose, claimed to have
saved q hundred thousand dollars {
: year by not dOtting his is. Whether
Y We commend or not the aptneSs o
this illustration, there is no doub
c that from the appearance Of Irving!
"knickerbOcker History of New
Q York (150S) to the present tim,
t eXaggeratlOn has been a constituent o
American humor, and the suggestio,
t has been made that it is a trait in
herited from our E~lizabethan an
S c%cstOrs. Mark Twain" says Profes
S SOr Erander Matthew'S, "is the fore
most OF American humorists becaus
r he thus relates us to our elizabeth
: am origins" On the contrary, Mari
Twain seems to me the foremost O
n our humorists not cau he sug
a gests h past but solely because h
s expresses the present. The cxplana
ton OF ~eXaggeratlOn in American hu
y NOR is to be sought primarily in tn
h bigness Of things that confront tn
American on all SIDES. The length o
l. American rivers, the height of Amer
lean mountains, the distance fror
n North to South and from East t
West, the phenomenal growth G
American population. the giganti
h combinations Of American capita
8 the varied products Of American SO
q these things soon begOt a sort c
interstate and then international riy
n. airy that found ready expression !
y humorous OyerStatement.
n The foreign view Of the magnitud
II OF things American was well OK
pressed by a Frenchman in a footnot
d to q translation Of Cooper's novel
ell Cooper, YOU remember. speaks of tree
l. usually by their first names. He doe
IS not say a hickory tree OF an oak ire
E or a poplar tree. but a hickory, a
y oak, q poplar. In one passage h
Of says that Deerslayer dismounted- an
n hltched his horse to the limb Of
le locust. The Frenchman's dictiona1
knew no 1OcnSt h,,t tho insect ~