THOMSON, Mortimer, humorist, born in Riga, Monroe county, New York, 2 September, 1832: died in New York city, 25 June, 1875. He was taken to Ann Arbor, Michigan, by his parents in childhood, and entered the University of Michigan, but was expelled, with about forty others, for belonging to college secret societies. After going on the stage, and then travelling as a salesman for a New York firm, he adopted journalism as a profession. He was first brought into notice by his letters from Niagara Falls, in the New York "Tribune," and he also wrote rhymed police-court reports, and a series of sketches of New York fortune-tellers, which was afterward published in book-form as "The Witches of New York" (New York, 1859). His report of the Pierce-Butler sale of slaves at Savannah, Georgia, about 1859, occupied several pages of the "Tribune," and was reprinted in the other daily papers, translated into several foreign languages, and circulated by the Anti-slavery society as a tract. During about eight years he delivered many popular lectures, including one in rhyme on" Pluck "and one on " Cheek " in prose. His wife was a daughter of Mrs. Parton, "Fanny Fern." Thomson's books, as well as most of his fugitive writings, appeared under the pen-name of "Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B.," which had been given him by the editor of a university magazine to which his earliest contributions were made. Thomson afterward asserted that it signified "Queer Kritter, Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick." His works include "Doesticks--What he Says "(New York, 1855) ; "Plu-ri-bus-tah : a Song that's by No Author," a travesty of Longfellow's "Hiawatha" (1856) ;" History and Records of the Elephant Club," with "Knight Russ Ockside, M. D." (Edward F. Underhill) ; "Nothing to Say, being a Satire on Snobbery" (1857); and several smaller humorous collections.