The subject of this sketch is known but little, although his humor
has acquired fame widespread and universal. Edward E. Edwards is the
paragrapher and “funny man” of the Boston Transcript. This journal has
become famous for its bright and racy column of “Facts and Fancies,”
and for the hundreds of sparkling humorous sketches that have appeared
in its columns during a great number of years.
Edward E. Edwards, the life of the journal, is a New Englander. Born
and reared in the vicinity of the great metropolis of culture, Edwards
has become one of the institutions of Boston. While yet a youth he
entered into the employ of the Transcript, in the capacity of assistant
in the mailing-room in the basement. He worked steadily; and gradually,
as he became a man, ascended in the business he had chosen, step by
step, until he now holds a remunerative position in the editorial rooms
on the fifth floor of the Transcript building.
Edwards is the fortunate possessor of a vein of humor of very peculiar
composition, and he occupies in the world of wit a field entirely his
own. The column of bright paragraphs published under the caption of
Facts and Fancies has long been one of the leading features of the
Boston Transcript, and is widely quoted. Edwards has made his most
happy hits, however, in his descriptive sketches, lectures to the
young, etc., that have appeared in his paper. These have been more
widely copied, perhaps, than any one class of humorous sketches that
have appeared in this country during the last decade. Their author is a
small man, of good appearance, weighing one hundred and sixty pounds,
and is about six and thirty years of age.
As a fair specimen of the humor that springs from the pen of Edwards, I
annex the following discourse to little children on