Chapter 2

PARODIES--REVIEWS--CHILDREN'S POEMS--COMEDIES BY WOMEN--A DRAMATIC TRIFLE--A STRING OF FIRECRACKERS 195

TO G.W.B. In Grateful Memory.

_"There was in her soul a sense of delicacy mingled with that rarest of qualities in woman--a sense of humor," writes Richard Grant White in "The Fate of Mansfield Humphreys." I have noticed that when a novelist sets out to portray an uncommonly fine type of heroine, he invariably adds to her other intellectual and moral graces the above-mentioned "rarest of qualities." I may be over-sanguine, but I anticipate that some sagacious genius will discover that woman as well as man has been endowed with this excellent gift from the gods, and that the gift pertains to the large, generous, sympathetic nature, quite irrespective of the individual's sex. In any case, having heard so repeatedly that woman has no sense of humor, it would be refreshing to have a contrariety of opinion on that subject._--THE CRITIC.

PROEM.[A]

We are coming to the rescue, Just a hundred strong; With fun and pun and epigram, And laughter, wit, and song;

With badinage and repartee, And humor quaint or bold, And stories that _are_ stories, Not several aeons old;

With parody and nondescript, Burlesque and satire keen, And irony and playful jest, So that it may be seen

That women are not quite so dull: We come--a merry throng; Yes, we're coming to the rescue, And just a hundred strong.

KATE SANBORN. [Footnote A: _Not_ Poem!]

THE WIT OF WOMEN.