... George Horatio Derby (1823-61) has been called the real father of the new school of humour which began to flourish toward the middle of the nineteenth century. His sketches, with the signature John Phoenix , began to appear about 1850, and were afterwards collected in two volumes, Phoenixiana (1855) and (1859). Derby had graduated from West Point, had served in the Mexican War, and, as an engineer, had...