Evening star., 1914-12-27

WV trees we cannot see Lne WOod
y period that has produced a
Doo1ey and an Ade, and an Irwin
Cobb, and Bert Lesion Taylor is surely not poor
in humorous possessions of scntllating character,
whether demand that humor shall be product
of pure fun of profoundly serious thinking ].
Montgomery Flagg in picture and in text is much
a master of effervescent foolery either
John Phoenix Artemas Ward; and in the humor
that is designed to interpret life itself find endless
store of it in the works of Wallace Irwin, of Montague
Glass; of Miss Edna Ferber and Of Mrs. Alice Regan
Rice; the last two, by the way, forming complete
refutaton of the preposterous notion that women
devoid of the sentiment that cheers but does not inc
briate. And for the wits, if Oliver Herord
lonely among wits he is unique should still feel
that rich beyond measure in that form of
humor which is for the most part Intellectual of the
mind rather than of the emotions
But even the charge true-which of course it
IS nottha we no longer have any purveyors of humor
of the first class upon whom may rely for service
regular is supply of milk, butter and eggs,
could still lay the fattering JUNCTION to souls that
American life is full of humor If anyone doubts the
fact let him throw himself headlong into the Lyceum
Seas and find out from personal contact. To me it
seems to crop up everywhere, and whether 1 travel
north SOUTH east west find it in great abundance-
humor conscious and humor unconscious; humor of
the mind, and humor of the heart, pathos; humor
of situation, and the humor involving a play
upon words; humor in all its infinitely varied qualities
and of character most appealing. Writing short
while ago of alleged similar condition in another
field of letters, that of lyric poetry permitted myself
the following rather sentimental reflections
No singers great are here today?
Perhaps! Let the Indictment stand
/ hear strong voice the way,
No lit from immortal hand;
And yet as the silver
l float. and towering hillsides scan,
Deep in my heart seem to hear
Again the merry pipes of Pan.
No lyrics worthy of the name
Are sung today by living men?
Perhaps! Yet naught is there of shame
That we have not old Herrick's pen,
For as 1 wander meath these skies
As fairly blue skies be
And gaze into two special eyes,
All life lyric is to
in respect to humor, and indeed l might prop
ery 60 further. could not perhaps say that all
Americans, or many Americans, are Wrists; but
should not fall far short of the mark to say that
most Americans are humorists In my travels come
across occasional "nonconductors' clever
of my acquaintance called certain social light
who was impervous to wit is the rhinoceros to
the sting of the gnat but they few and far between
For the most part have found natural born
humorists nearly every bush. =
In previous paper l have confessed to r
disappointment in the quality of the SA
humor of the negro have encountered ~
it in Southern climes; but there have been, M
nevertheless, delightful riffs in that cloud. ~&lS
/ recall an aged son of Ethiopia who called HfSESf
for wntry morning at four o'clock
to drive me from my hotel at Greenvie,
South Carolina, to the railway station. He
a ragged old fellow, and with his SNOWY
wool-covered head composed study in
black and white worthy of the brush of ~
any of our best limners of character. He was
communicative as he ragged, and con- IF vo
fded to at the very beginning of our a,nt
acquaintance that he had moved away from e,b ar