Show S TO WHOM IS HONOR RECORDS SILENT AS TO AMERI AMERICAS AMERICAS AMERICAS CAS FIRST HUMORIST Progenitor of Long Line Lne of Worlds Moat Moot Distinguished Men Has H Ja Yet Yetto Yetto Yetto to Be Identified la It Na Nathaniel thaniel l Ward Who cracked the first Joko Joke In Amer America America ica lea Tho The early ealy records do not nol state We are aro not oven even quito sure as to tho the first American who tried to t be bo funny on paper Of course coure some of or the tb very earliest colonists in both Virginia Virgnia and ad adNew New England wrote humorous and sarcastic accounts back bock home Ono One On might call to mind John Pory POT of or the tho Jamestown settlement whose whole letters leters to the homo home folks wore quaint quaintly ly Iy witty Francis Higginson sturdy old Now New Englander sometimes dan dangerously near joking and somo some would Gould say sa that William Wood of or Massachusetts by his sprightly ht New England Prospect 1631 l 34 deserves the place aa as a first of or the tho numerous fathom fathers of Amere can humor But Bul the first man to do It with mal malice malIo malice ice Io aforethought anti and anI with the tho Inton mien ion ton of or publishing also seems to have been the Now Nest England preacher Na Nathaniel thaniel Ward 1678 2 It I was he ho who wrote the first frt American book of humor Tho Simple Cobbler of Aga Asa warn wnm Other Othor books he ho composed compo Red but butas butas butas as they deal extensively In promises of volcanic landscapes In tho ho next world they cannot with propriety be called funny Ward was a n widower of or consider considerable considerable able standing In point of oC time when he perpetrated the tho Simple Cobbler a fact which may ma have havo somo some bearing on tho the tenor of his remarks of o which there hero arc are many concerning women To speak spek moderately moderate says ho I truly confess It Is beyond the ken of my m understanding to conceive how those women should have havo any truo true grace grce or valuable virtue that havo have so soIto little Ito wit as a to disfigure uro themselves with wih such exotic garbs garba as ns not only dismantles their native lovely luster but bul them Into gant bar geese seese ill 1 shellfish Egyptian hieroglyphics or at II best Into French of the pastel which a proper English woman oman should scorn with wih her heels It I la is no marvel they wear on tho the hinder part par of or their heads hears having nothing as It seems seema in the lh forepart but a few rew squirrels rein brains to help them frisk from one fashion to another The Tho world Is I full tun of ot care much mitch mich Ilk like unto a Q bubble Women omon and carp car find and core care and Id women And women and care and trouble It la is II a moro more common than convenient saying that hat nine tailors make a man manIt manIl manit It Il were ere well weIl that 19 1 could make a woman to her mind It Il is no little la ha labor la labor habor bor to bo be continually putting up Eng English En lish lah women Into outlandish casks who ho If it t they thoy be not shifted anew once In a few rew months montha grow too sour sou for their husbands What this trade will answer for or themselves them when God Gal shall take measure of oC tailors consciences Is beyond my m skill sl 1 to Imagine He that makes coats for the tile moon had need take tuko measure every noon and he h that makes for women as ns often to keep them tem from rom lunacy Sc wanee Review Revlow |