The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-07


 mendation is made for commission consisting of three members of the fed eral judiciary and three members of the bar to "examine the present criminal mode of procedure and recommend to the congress measures which may reform and expedite court procedure in the ad- ministration and enforcement of our criminal laws" Something ought to be done, and the presidents emphasis on this need should produce prompt legls- lative result.
 ENGLISH SENSE OF HUMOR
 The belief still obtains in the United States that the English have no sense of humor. Yet, literature has been en- riched by the greatest profusion of hu- nor poured out by English writers, and of such quality that it has invested both it's authors and the characters they created with immortality. Instead of the flat statement that the average Briton cannot see joke, it would be nearer the truth to say that the average Briton can not see anything funny in a good many of our sayings, which we regard as the Hast word in smartness, while we fail to see the point in much that he regards as humor. But there is broad middle ground where most of us may stand, whether we be American or Briton, and we need look no further for proof of this assertion than the popularity, wherever the English language is spoken, of the masters of British satire and humor.
 Take MT. Pickwick, for instance. Do we Americans not find as much enter tainment in Pickwick, his friends and associates and his irrepressible servant. Sam Weller, not to mention host of other characters who appear in the pages of Dickens book, as do our cousins across the water? When one undertakes to quote from "The Pickwick Papers 1t IS hard to decide where to begin and where to leave off, for there are few pages that do not furnish forth an abundance of chuckles, interspersed with laughter.
 The wise and witty sayings of Sam Weller, that imperturbable person who lis always master of himself and pos sessed of unshaken poise, no matter Tn what company or what circumstances he may find himself, would have estab- Ilished the reputation of Dickens as a great humorfst, had he not thrown Tn Messrs. Pickwick, Tupman, Snodgrass, Wrinkle, Alfred Jingle, old Wardle, Job Trotter, the Rev. Mr. Stiggins, Bob Sawyer. MT. and Mrs. Leo Hunter, Ben iamin Allen, Mrs. Bardell and score of others. Yet, these characters of Dickens are found in a single work. In his novels and shorter stories that IS an imposing company of persons whose tralts -sordid, humorous, tragic, heroic ana merely of the average human sort-are set forth with astonishing fidelity. Hu- nor, however, is seldom lacking for long, in the pages of Dickens. It IS the one quality above all others, that assures him literary immortality.
 Another English writer who contrib uted richly to the British storehouse of humor is Thackeray. But we need not cite examples of the past, or call upon the literary giants of another day to sup mort the argument. There are instances in plenty occurring at the present time. Punch, to which Thackeray once con- tributed. is a monument to British humor. It maintains today, with Sir Owen Sea- man as editor, the prestige 1t galned un- der it's first editor, Mark Lemon, who served in that capacity from the found ing of Punch in 1841 untilr187O. Much of the humor of Punch is insular, and It is practically all typically English. For this reason. some of it has been ms understood abroad, but no one with taste for Dickens, Thackeray, Hood, Douglas Jerrold, or half dozen other writers of English humor, can fall to find intense enjoyment in Punch, while from the beginning it has faithfully re- flected the English point of view on na- tional and international questions.
 The question has often been asked why no humorous publication in America mas obtained the recognition that is freely accorded to Punch, not only in England but everywhere. In it's beginning, the New York paper, Puck, with the pencil of Joseph Keppler backing the pen ot Henry Runner, gave splendid promise, but whether there were no worthy sue cessors to carry on the work, or the work itself was Cover the head" of the pubic, the standard was lowered. Puck ceased Ito he what it had been. It may be that there is a deeper purpose behind Punch than there is behind our American pub Ilications, whose object is cmefly to amuse. Punch was established to tlght for abolition of Fleet and Marshalsea prisons, where debtors were confined; and of capital punishment, and to up hold English integrity and virtue: Truly, worthy purpose! Punch is still cru Isader against public and private evils, as well as the most famous humorous publication And Punch has Kept pace with the times. Its paragraphs, frequent Ilv reproduced in American magazines and newspapers; it's verse, some ot the best written by Owen Seaman hmsel1; i; and it's cartoons have universal appeal, Yet, at times Punch does resort to what so?ne Americans regard as EngilsA humor in its worst manifestation.
 Mr. Pickwick and Punch-what other proof is required of the English sense of hunor, to which large part of the world has for generations paid the tribute of laughter?
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