As the author of 'Beautiful Snow,' he has
added a new pang to winter. He is a square, true man in honest
politics, and I must say he occupies a mighty lonesome position.
So broad, so bountiful is his character that he never turned a tramp
empty-handed from his door, but always gave him a letter of introduction
to me. Pure, honest, incorruptible, that is Joe Hawley. Such a man in
politics is like a bottle of perfumery in a glue factory--it may modify
the stench, but it doesn't destroy it. I haven't said any more of him
than I would say of myself. Ladies and gentlemen, this is General
Hawley."
Mr. Chesterton maintains that Mark Twain was a wit rather than a
humorist--perhaps something more than a humorist. "Wit," he explains,
"requires an intellectual athleticism, because it is akin to logic. A
wit must have something of the same running, working, and staying power
as a mathematician or a metaphysician. Moreover, wit is a fighting
thing and a working thing. A man may enjoy humour all by himself; he
may see a joke when no one else sees it; he may see the point and avoid
it.
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