The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-29
From the New York Post.

~ -
seeing pedantry ranging far from
~ it's native heath. There are many
kinrs of pedants at large. MIR. Hiaire
Belloc wrote not wisely when he classified
mankind into the lawyer the merchant,
the doctor, etc.-and the pedant. The
class is not so isolated In America, at all
events, we have the factory owner who
runs his shops according TO the latest
monograph on efficiency; the mother who
fears to love her child more than the ac-
cepted treatise permits; and the child him
self who reads what he is to play. Even
our humorists have turned pedants. For
merly they had the consolation of know
ing that when all other copy failed,
they might look In their hearts and write.
But that time, to judge by the way things
are going, isipast.
For humorists, it would appear. have
taken TO using card catalogues and books
of reference This. for aught we know,
may be necessary. for conditions have
greatly changed the scope and details of
humor during the past quarter of cen-
| tury. Consider some of the old standbys
which are now outworn: the mother-ia-
law, the commuter, the country cousin,
the village beau, the big shoes of Chicago,
the sleepiness of Philadelphia, precocions
Willie. Uncle JOSH Apparently the
mother-in-law has learned her lesson; the
parcel post has deprived the commuter
of his funny packages; the suburban troll
ley has wiped out of existence the coun-
try cousin and uncle; wise little Willie
died from competition with all the actual
prodigies of enterprising newspapers; and
the drums and tramplings'' of Bull Moose
conquests have somewhat stalled Chicago
| in the humorists eyes. II familiarity
breeds contempt, it also blunts the edge
of all but the finest wit. For the rough
and-ready joke depends for its effect upon
a considerable exaggeration which for the
moment may pass for the truth. SO long
as the alleged crudity of the westerner
| caused him irritation because he knew
| that the easterner more than half credited
lit. 1t furnished the humorist with the
necessary zest. But now that the cultural
conditions of the west are generally
known to be much like those of the eas1,
the salt hath lost its SAVIOR. Humor OF
old followed few conventional lines; it
was artificial, but not very boolSish.
| It was not so boolSish, that is, as it is
today. There were, of course, perennialy
the modern rehabilitations of stock char
acters In history and mythology which
| are supposed to be funny such as Mark
lTwain's DIARY of ADAM" an afternoon
tea given by Calpurnia. Achilles playing
centre rush. For the present change of
| f,a,t cavaraI things ate reepnnsih1a Noy
the least is the thrush of cleverness.
When smartness and paradox became the
leading fashion, even men with scholarly
interests were mpelled to fall in line Mr..
Belloc, by a good deal of research, es-
sayed to disprove the principal qualities
usually assigned to the Anglo Saxon. Mr..
Frank Harris had his fun with the
Shakespeare myth; another writer set out
| to show that the cannibal is in reality
most inhuman and lovable. But the main
Impulse has come from the news inter-
est which in the press of all sorts has
grown to be such an important factor.
The popularity of Signor Ferero's writings
| on acient Rome sent the humorists to their
reference books, and we had a large out
| put of grotesque conduct ascribed TO
Julius Caesar. Much, too, can be done hy
studying the calendar. Every day is the
anniversary of important happenings. and
these have to be studied and indexed and
brought into proper Casually improper) re-
lations. If every newspaper has its
| graveyard" against the death of some
notable. the humorist. it may be inferred.
is equally far-sghtcd He has not forgot.
ten that human types in Panama will
soon be much in demand that the colonel
| is going to Argentina, and that Shakes
peare will one of these years be three GEN.
turies dead. Not all the variations of this
scholarly humor need be mentioned. One
is the mechanical method of developiny j,
joke into series calculated to do service
for several days. 1t is very different from
ShalSespeare's splitting liesup into seven
lcategories, being manipulated somewha,
las follows: Some comicaI incident having
been related in the press concerning q
German bassoonist, we are furnished witt
a serial on the whmsies of musicians.
Now, some of these excesses are appar
entity inevitable. The humorit must follow
public interest, which ir a cosmopolitan
centre like New York ranges widely. Tht
whole world is his oyster Some jest ilal
today to be wrung from China, tomorrow