Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1889 — Funny Men in Political Life. [ARTICLE]

Funny Men in Political Life.

The late S. S. Cox lamented somedimes that he had a reputation for being a “funny man.” It interfered with his effectiveness when he wanted to be particularly earnest and impressive. It annoyed him on such occasions to realize that his auditors Avere waiting, mouths stretched, for the expected joke, when he was endeavoring to speak in all seriousness upon a subject that he had much at heart. But this has been the penalty all humorists have paid when in public life. Tom Corwin, of Ohio, Senator, and Minister to Mexico, was the funniest stump speak•er this country has ever produced, but he regretted in his later years that he had ever been a funny man. He advised young men with political ambitions to suppress humorous tendencies in speech-making, and Garfield is said to have profited by the advice, for in early life he had displayed that tendency. “The world builds no monuments to funny men,” Corwin used to say, mournfully. “If you would suceeed be solemn —solemn as an ass.” Senator Morton of Indiana, the war Governor, as he was called during the fratricidal struggle, scarcely cracked a joke during his later years, though he had quite a reputation for wit as a young man. One of the earliest speeches that he made after becoming a politician was in Terre Haute, Ind., u,nd it was irresistibly funny from end to end, and the people laughed “consumedly.” But Morton saw that that wouldn’t do. He argued that a politician who goes into wit as a general thing must expect to sacrifice everything else for it. He will gain little reputation as a sound man. He will never get very high in honors. People •will say that he is a good “stumper,” but his judgment will be a thing of suspicion. People will dislike to trust him. They will not deem the author of witty sayings capable of ‘Originating large, solid measures. So Morton dropped funny speech-making, but he Avon his next audience by the matchless power of his oratory. And yet, had there been no “ Sunset” Cox in our public life, American literature and the American forum would have been the loser. —Texas Siftings.