Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v3.djvu/48

 30 Minor Humorists the pungent insight of Josh Billings and makes him one of the most quotable writers. Americans of the present generation are not likely to forget some of his sayings, least of all the re- mark of Father Kelly: "Hogan," he says, "I'll go into th' battle with a prayer book in wan hand an' a soord in th' other," he says; " an' if th' wurruk calls f'r two hands, 'tis not th' soord I'll dhrop," he says. When not busied with comments on current events, Mr. Dooley sometimes had leisure to relate incidents of the Hfe about him in the gas-house district. As an interpreter of the city, however, he yields to Sydney Porter ("O. Henry").' The O. Henry story is the last word in deft manipulation, but as a humorist Porter is not deeply philosophical. His neat situa- tions, surprising turns, and verbal cleverness show a refinement upon the methods of predecessors, indeed, but not a new comic attitude. Unsurpassed in daring extravaganza when he can give himself completely to gaiety, he becomes immediately sober in the presence of thought or sentiment. In these re- spects he represents the norm of recent American humour at a high pitch of technical perfection, and his death in 1910 may fittingly be taken as the close of the period. Just at present, judicious Americans are importing their best current humour from Canada. ' See Book III, Chap. Ti.