Finley Peter Dunne is not a familiar literary name, but the comic character he created, Mr. Martin Dooley of "Ar-rchey R-road," a Chicago Irish-American saloonkeeper, has enjoyed an enduring fame. Through Mr. Dooley's rambling monologues, skillfully blending satire with broadly exaggerated burlesques and verbal wit in a refreshing style of frank expression tempered by sentiment and good-natured sympathy, Finley Peter Dunne exerted considerable influence on national opinion during his career as a regional and national humorist from 1893 to 1926. Popular songs were composed about Mr. Dooley, a Broadway play was staged, and each hardbound collection of Mr. Dooley essays was a substantial best-seller. He was especially renowned during the years of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine insurrection when his ridicule of America's clumsy imperialism won for him a wide and keenly interested audience. In the years since his regular appearance as a public sage, Mr. Dooley has been...