of Thomas Nelson Page. The trouble, possibly, with the
enduring qualities of the brilliant humorous stories of "O. Henry" was
that they tempt the reader to laugh too much and to smile too little.
When one reads the _Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ or _Diedrich
Knickerbocker's History of New York_, it is always with this gentle
parting of the lips, this kindly feeling toward the author, his
characters and the world. A humorous page which produces that effect
for generation after generation, has the stamp of literature. One may
doubt whether even the extraordinary fantasies of Mark Twain are more
successful, judged by the mere vulgar test of concrete results, than
the delicate humor of Charles Lamb. Our current newspaper and magazine
humor is in no respect more fascinating than in its suggestion as to
the permanent effectiveness of its comic qualities. Who could say, when
he first read Mr. Finley P. Dunne's "Mr. Dooley" sketches, whether this
was something that a whole nation of readers would instantly and
instinctively rejoice over, would find a genial revelation of American
characteristics, would recognize as almost the final word of kindly
satire upon our overworked, over-excited, over-anxious,
over-self-conscious generation?

The range of this contemporary newspaper and magazine humor is
well-nigh universal,--always saving, it is true, certain topics or
states of mind which the American public cannot regard as topics for
laughter. With these few exceptions nothing is too high or too low for
it. The paragraphers joke about the wheel-barrow, the hen, the mule,
the mother-in-law, the President of the United States. There is no
ascending or descending scale of importance. Any of the topics can
raise a laugh. If one examines a collection of American parodies, one
will find that the happy national talent for fun-making finds full
scope in the parody and burlesque of the dearest national sentiments.
But no one minds; everybody believes that the sentiments endure while
the jokes will pass. The jokes, intended as they are for an immense
audience, necessarily lack subtlety. They tend to partake of the
methods of pictorial caricature. Indeed, caricature itself, as Bergson
has pointed out, emphasizes those "automatic, mechanical-toy" traits of
character and behavior which isolate the individual and make him ill
adapted for his function in society. Our verbal wit and humor, no less
than the pencil of our caricaturists, have this constant