Judge — September 27, 1919 — page 35: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

September 27, 1919 Stephen SlipAm( each ey Hie if 1 f Leacock will be a regular contributor to fudge EW humorous writers of the hour have a wider or more appreciative audience than this clever author out of the north—Canada. The interesting thing about Mr. Leacock is the depth and range of his clas- sical information and his knowledge of world affairs. But you mustn't hold that against him. He is a brilliant scholar who has entirely escaped being a self-conscious highbrow. He has a string of vivid vowels and about a dozen of the very best consonants trailing after his name—Ph.D.'s, etc. Al- though head of the Department of Political Economy at McGill University, Montreal, he can write about ordinary, everyday things and people in a way that would make even a professional prohibitionist grin from lobe to lobe. Regular folks let fly their most honest-to-goodness laughs when L tickles them with his verbal straws. Back in 1906 he wrote his first serious book about the elements of political science, following it up (in 1907) with a volume about the makers of Canada. Then he re- formed—discovered himself as a fun-maker and wrote “ Liter- ary Lapses” and “Nonsense Novels.” Seven humorous books is his record to date, to say nothing of miles of screamingly M something a funny essays and skits—timely fantasies wedded to good, wholesome guffaws. We hate to be bromidic and say that a treat is in store for Jupce readers, but that is the only way we can really put over to you the idea that some bully fun is going to flow through these pages from the Leacockian pen. And as humor that has the ringof spontaneity in itis not any toocommonin these days of the high costiveness of hilarity, this means a lot to a nation fed up onwar statistics and Congressional speeches and everything. Mr. Leacock’s first article (in next week’s JupGe) is really a serious matter—a kind of essayistical thunderclap with beautiful flashes of lightning wit darting in and out of his rhetorical firmament—if you know what we mean. But it is when he lets himself go that he is most amusing and he has promised to let himself go the limit in this magazine. So we are warning you, in case you have decided to be very serious this winter, not to read any of Mr. Leacock’s contributions to Jupce for you are sure to break into laughter upon some of your self-obstructing rocks of gloom. Thank you for reading all this. We good news. just had to tell you the . Leacock’s first article appears in Next week's Fudge coMmiecbooksseom