ABSTRACT
A change that might reasonably be deemed an improvement had declared itself in Charles Browne before his brief career closed. He had ceased to find it advisable to emphasise his wit by curiously phonetic spelling; this was typical of a more important alteration in his manner. His range of thot1ght seemed wider, his wit had less of irresponsible schoolboy gaiety and more of serious intention. It was when he flung down the jester's bauble and laid aside the motley garb that Mark Twain-to give him the nom de plume he has made familiar wherever English is spoken-began to acquire a certain hold on the audience that had laughed so heartily with Artemus-scarcely at him. For a long time people of taste would turn their eyes from any book bearing the pseudonym that told of its writer's life on a Mississippi steamboat. 'l-Ie is so vulgar,' they alleged, 'how can you read such detestable stuff?' And the majestic Revue des Deux Mo11dcs, reproducing in classically f:-lllltless French the ]11mpi11g Frog, that its writer had set forth in roughest dialect, bade its readers note the singular ineptitude of the stories which could be accepted as witty and amusing by our cousins in the States. Certainly there was little of Attic elegance in the English affected by the new humorist; and the record of a tour in
Europein1867,whichbecameapopularfavouritewithEnglish readersunderthetitleofTheItmocet1tsAbroad,hadsomethingmore thananoteofaggressiveprovincialism-asortofanxietytodepreciate, asfaraspossible,thoseOldWorldsplendoursinwhichtheNew Worldcouldclaimneitherpartnorlot.Itwassupremelycharacteristic ofthisauthorinhisearlierstageofdevelopmentthat,lookingonthe dreamlikebeautyoftheItalianlakelandwithaneyethatcouldtakein nolittleofitsloveliness,hemustneedscompareComodisparagingly with'LakeTahoe.'LagodiComoisplacedataloweraltitudethan itsTransatlanticrival-unknown,wefear,despiteitseulogist,tonine hundredoutofeverythousandwhoarefamiliarwiththepictured charmsofComo;'Tahoe'iseighteenmileswide,Comobutone. Charmsmeasurableinmilesofwidthandfeetofaltitude!isnothere theold,oldTransatlanticerroroftakingdimensionasatestofgrandeur?The'lonelymajesty'ofTahoe-'aseawhoseroyalseclusionis guardedbyacordonofsentinelpeaksthatlifttheirfrostyfrontsnine thousandfeetabovethelevelworld'-thislonelymajesty'typesthe Deity'-andconstitutesthereforesuperiority?Nay,butitisthe human,historic,socialelement-theexquisitecivilisationofcenturies oncenturies-whichisthegloryofthelovelyaccessibleItalianlakes, andremindsusmoreaptlyofdivinewisdomasrevealedintheHebrew Scriptures,'rejoicinginthehabitableearth,andherdelightwiththe sonsofmen.'Ourwriter,despitehispredeterminedintentiontoexalt thingsAmericanaboveallothers,betrayshimselfassubjugatedby thisverycharmdespitehimself,asunconsciouslyraisedandrefined byit.Novulgarityistraceableinthisscrapofvivid,eloquent description.
