Like many conservative New Englanders, the 100-year-old Boston Herald regards tradition as no laughing matter. Yet for 16 years it has permitted itself and its readers a daily exception. In the cartoons of droll, deadpanned Francis W. Dahl, it has needled the Watch & Ward Society, kidded the champions of real New England (tomato-less) clam chowder,*poked fun at the customs and costumes of Beacon Hill.
Bostonians have loved every minute of it. One night a Herald engravers' plate was broken just before deadline, and the paper landed on 144,000 breakfast tables with no Dahl,...