Abstract

Fun and Fancy

The article throws light on several books. "From Baseball to Boches," by B.H.C.Witwer; "Keeping Up With William," by Irving Bacheller; "Worrying Won't Win," by Montague Glass and many more. The first one is the broader kind of fun, the kind of fun that had better literary standing in the day of Josh Billings and Artemus Ward, or even of "Helen's Babies," but has never been more acceptable to the populace than now, as the news-stands testify under our noses. Delicate humor in an ex-ball-player would be an affront to his readers in the smoking-car, as it would have been to his audience on the bleachers. "Keeping Up with William" is in effect a spirited monologue on the war by Bacheller's ancient interlocutor, the Honorable Socrates Potter, who not so long ago was busy enough "Keeping Up with Lizzie."