A confrère could scarcely be more amiable, and I hope Mr. Dana appreciated the compliments.
America, New York especially, has some capital comic papers.
By that, I mean more comic than the rest.
Similar to the Paris Charivari and to Punch, Puck and Judge have always skits on the questions of the day, touched off with the freedom which one would expect in free America. The manners of the people are criticised with wit and good taste. The little illustrations are charming, but two or three huge coloured pictures done in the crudest style disfigure each of these papers. Several other publications, such as Life, written in a light, sparkling style, and ornamented with little fine, tasteful illustrations, concern themselves with the sayings and doings of higher American society, Little stories, anecdotes, bons mots, material for a merry hour. Admirable are these papers, which know how to be comic, witty, and bright, without being objectionable, or unfit to put into the hands of a girl in her teens.
These papers are not only amusing to the stranger, they are instructive. The funny stories, the naive jokes, as descriptive as they are diverting, give a truer idea of American character and manners than many a ponderous volume.
As in France and England, the comic papers in America are the only ones which give proof of a little wisdom or common sense when the horizon is darkened and home and foreign political questions are disturbing the peace of the country.
If I were asked to name the most amusing papers published in the United States, I should not hesitate to award the palm to the Detroit Free Press and the Omaha World; in these two, American humour reveals itself in all its spontaneous gaiety, and their drolleries are reproduced from New York to San Francisco, from Montreal to New Orleans.