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THE ATLANTJAM
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A V
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semi-annually. Any amount deposited before the 10th of
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ARTEMUS WARD, HIS
QUEER WAYS AND
DROLL SAYINGS.
From the Hartford Courant.
American humor stand unique and
supreme the world over. Our coun
try may have no recognized standing
in creative art; American drama may
be in its infancy; American painting
and sculpture may be in the academic
stage; but there is no doubt about the
American humor. It stands alone—
peerless, distinctive, the recognized
superior of all other brands. Perhaps
that is why the American humorist is
sure of a niche in the hall of fame,
and his name is Bure to live long in
the hearts and minds of those who
have basked in the sunshine of his
genial outpourings.
Although his career in the public
eye was measured by a span of less
than ten years, the name of ArtemuB
Ward today,after forty years, is writ
ten among the first in the history of
American humor. The plain, homely
character of his humor, its almost end
less flow, its ready outpouring on ev
ery occasion, its harmlessness, and its
contagious communicability, all these
attributes helped win its author fame,
and made his name live long after he
went down to an early grave. Indeed
his genial personality from which his
humor sprang, Is remembered, per
haps, better than what he wrote.
his real name—was any saint, simply
because he possessed a rich vein of
smooth-flowing humor. He was no
toriously shiftless in business matters,
somewhat coarse-grained at times in
his humor as he was coarse in his
speech, and in his habits of living.
But he is not remembered for these.
It is the best that lives after him,
fortunately, and not the worst, and he
The Good That Lives.
It must not be supposed that Ward j
-or Charles F. Browne, which was Atlanta National Bank Building.
I N GS.
will be known for his genial and hu
morous personality—not for bis weak
ness.
He was a down-east Yankee, was
Ward; born in 1834 and raised in the
village of Waterford, Me. His first
experience as a writer came when he
attached himself to the Oxford County
Advertiser at Norway, Me., as a prin
ter, and later as compositor on the
Carpet Bag, a humorous Journal pub
lished in Boston, he began to find him
self. Perhaps as humorous a trick as
he ever turned came in the very
springtime of his work as a printer.
The Advertiser force had grown dis
gusted and nettled at the boasting of
an opposition paper, which chronicled
from week to week insignificant im
provements in the appearance of the
office, such as a new bay window, a
fresh coat of pain for the casement,
etc. At last Artemus wrote and the
Advertiser published the following:
“We have bored a new hole in the
sink and put a bran new slop-pail un
der it. What will the hell-hounds of
the other office say to that?"
As a matter of fact the "hell-hounds"
didn’t say a word. They were the
laughing stock of Oxford county.
On The Carpet Bag.
His first work of importance Arte
mus did on the Carpet Bag, in Boston,
whither he wandered from Maine. But
he was of roving disposition, and the
"wanderlust” took him westward. He
landed in Cincinnati, worked on this
paper and that, and one day, reading
an advertisement for .a school teacher
wanted in a Kentucky village not far
away, he responded. Now Artemus
was never a strong man, being very
“skinny” as they say down east, and
not given to exhibitions of physical
prowess. Before the first week was
over he learned that a gang of rough
youngsters had licked every school
master that ever tried to hold down
the school Friday night Artemus dis
appeared and never returned. He
didn’t even stop to ask for that week’s
salary, which he must have needed
sorely.'
By easy stages he worked bis way
up along the Cincinnati, Hamilton and
Dayton Railroad to Dayton, thence to
Springfield, to Tiffin, and then to To
ledo, where he was market reporter
on the Commercial. Here his work as
a writer really commenced, and his
merit was recognized when he was
called to be city editor of the Cleve
land Plain Dealer at the princely sala
ry of $10 per week. They paid won
derful salaries in those days.
Hartford Man Knew Him.
It was his work on the Plain Dealer
that brought him into contact with
Charles E. Wilson, now a resident of
Hartford, who remembers well the
long, lanky, good-natured, shiftless,
coarse-grained Maine farmer, and who
today recalls vividly the details of the
young man’s work and life at that
time. During the late fifties and early
sixties, when Artemus Ward was with
the Plain Dealer, Mr. Wilson was bus
iness manager of the paper. James F.
Ryder, a well-known Cleveland photo
grapher, became one of Ward’s warm
est friends, and in his record of half
a century of photography, under the
title “Voigtlaender and I” (Voigtlaen-
der being his camera), he devotes a
whole chapter to the humorist
“Artemus soon had a city full of
friends,” says Mr. Ryder. “His humor
was like a bubbling spring, always on
tap; a merry laugh was always ready
and easily called out.”
Wanderlust Had Him.
His reputation as a humorist was
made during his few years in Cleve
land, and also through contributions
to Vanity Fair, a New York publica
tion. He was called to an editorial
position on this part in 1860 at a sal
ary twice that paid him by the Plain
Dealer, and of course he accepted. He
had much leisure time in New York,
and devoted it to the preparation of
his first and most famous lecture.
“Babies in the Woods,” which had
nothing to do with babes at all. The
“wanderlust” had him, and he looked
forward for years to the lecture field
before he actually embarked upon it.
At last, however, he "got going,” and
his reputation grew through the Mid
dle West, where he achieved his great
est success. His return to Cleveland
was the occasion for an ovation. It
is related of his appearance there that
an old Cleveland friend, Charley Park,
sat right down in the very front row.
Charley was as well known as Arte
mus and he amused himself and play
ed a disconcerting practical joke on
Artemus by grimacing and making
quiet comments to distract the lectur-
si.. At last Artemus told the story of
■» tat and lazy fellow who, on a certain
hot day, was possessed of an inordi
nate thirst, but his disclination to
walk five rods to a cool refreshing
spring induced him to turn to a tea
kettle on a hot stove hand by, pour out
its contents and then blow upon the
Fourth National Bank Building.