mber the humorist as a quaint and tricksy
boy, alternating between laughter and preternatural gravity, and of a
surprising ingenuity in devising odd practical jokes in which good
nature so far prevailed that even the victims were too much amused to be
very angry.

[Illustration: Charles F. Browne]

On both sides, he came from original New England stock; and although he
was proud of his descent from a very ancient English family, in
deference to whom he wrote his name with the final "e," he felt greater
pride in his American ancestors, and always said that they were genuine
and primitive Yankees,--people of intelligence, activity, and integrity
in business, but entirely unaffected by new-fangled ideas. It is
interesting to notice that Browne's humor was hereditary on the paternal
side, his father especially being noted for his quaint sayings and
harmless eccentricities. His cousin Daniel many years later bore a
strong resemblance to what Charles had been, and he too possessed a
kindred humorous faculty and told a story in much the same solemn
manner, bringing out the point as if it were something entirely
irrelevant and unimportant and casually remembered. The subject of this
sketch, however, was the only member of the family in whom a love for
the droll and incongruous was a controlling disposition. As is
frequently the case, a family trait was intensified in one individual to
the point where talent passes over into genius.

On his mother's side, too, Browne was a thorough-bred New-Englander. His
maternal grandfather, Mr. Calvin Farrar, was a man of influence in town
and State, and was able to send two of his sons to Bowdoin College. I
have mentioned Browne's parentage because his humor is so essentially
American. Whether this consists in a peculiar gravity in the humorous
attitude towards the subject, rather than playfulness, or in a tendency
to exaggerated statement, or in a broad humanitarian standpoint, or in a
certain flavor given by a blending of all these, it is very difficult to
decide. Probably the peculiar standpoint is the distinguishing note, and
American humor is a product of democracy.

Humor is as difficult of definition as is poetry. It is an intimate
quality of the mind, which predisposes a man to look for remote and
unreal analogies and to present them gravely as if they were valid. It
sees that many of the objects valued by men are illusions, and it
expresses this conviction by assuming that other