Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1892 — A Warning to Amateur Humorists. [ARTICLE]

A Warning to Amateur Humorists.

The task of a man who is compelled to get up a certain amount of printed humor daily is more laborious than ,that of a hod-carrier. It is something like it, too. He just carries Stuff to the level of the average comIprehension, and, having deposited it before the person to get the benefit ol fit, goes after more. How does the humorist work? Well, it depends largely upon his temperament and greater or less fitness for his specialty. Some men, although they have fair ability-in :some lines of writing, are slow to {originate a humorous idea, notwithstanding that they can appreciate it bn others. To such the writing of a humorous paragraph or article is .something to be dreaded. It would be a violation of newspaper ethics for a professional writer to decline to get up an article on any subject or from any standpoint. {Given a theme, and told to treat it humorously, the most sedate member of a newspaper staff will attack it without hesitation, and in his own time will do the work well—perhaps as well as the man whose specialty is humor. But, ah! the labor of the sedate man! How each queer smile, every epigrammatic sentence, and every odd .expression will wring his soul and make his brain throb! Fun! Tell him that he ought to enjoy his own fun, and he will probably brain you with the office poker. Ask the regular paragrapher whether he enjoys his work, and he will think you an idiot. He does it because it is his work, but the terrible wrestle he has with the English language every day to evolve those atrocious witticisms of his no one knows but himself.