Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1867-03-28

iShim than to the townstoiks AT last HIS
great opportunity arrived in an application.
to uiakesE ewsYor his homeland revive
[fhe sinking fortunes Of VANITY Far. In a.
|fewslnonths time he had arisen from the So!
! ciaI rank of a. e tramp" conlpositor, 70 edit.
the best attempt we haze ever had, IN,
american comic literature. - W y
Now the purpose of purposelessness bore
It's fruit Those who expected to meet an
unkempt, boorish bugoon, found in the old
Snowman a tall young man, the equal OF
anybody in courtesy and .tinesse made al
fable and bold together by many rowing
companionships and accepting his inaugu-
ratien- with a mixture of afnhess and en-
thusiasn. All that was memorable in
VANITY Fair afterWal4a was written BY
him. The Ward bapefs of chat era were
the most homogeneous; Illogical eccentric,
there had been lpfevieusly any quarter
where he was unknown, these letters adj
verised him, and the, wonderful kHack he
lad Of making friends Of journalists at
large gave every fragment universal circu-
lation. At the time of his death he had
prohablyaaore literary and newspaper ac-
fsfaintancesit han any known man =
Browne changed his designs in life, but
not his friends, The sanley class, of good
'nstired iditefer5 we're bis fa3oritss to Ithe
iast | IfIei dN!1iot believe that lhurnor was,
'abffity!. and therefore did not trouble him
self with iselEmeasurements and comparl-'
sons Jealousy he never understood. But
he insisted upon getting the fullest reward
for his work, and the remainder OF, his life
was divided between enjoyment and money
making Writing never paid him anything
of consequence even his books, if | am
we'll informed, nettedeto himself but five
thousand dollars and they included almost
I=the whofe sum of histpmposltlo Tie re-,
tcpived invitations te lecture during the ex-
istence. of Ya1,ify Far, and after its de
cease made his first peripatetic journey.
At first he was bad lecturer; without
confidence, faltering, y uncertain in style
Eventually he triumphed over these defects,
settled down into thR4easy mixture OF half
shrewd, halfidiotic expression-a manner
ism in which he had no equals even upon
the stageLatlti finally in the parlor en-
tertainment,'" the system of ,1ecturlng orig
mated by Albert Smith he Was without d
peer here or abroad.
Early in his Ieetufing career, at Cleve-
land. he met with ludicrous experience.
There was an individual whom we may
call Higgins in the town, wholhad employed
Artemus to write the puffs Of his boot and
shoe 5toreIint the, P3asgden2er, the writer
getting| his pay in stock. When Higgins
heard that Ward had become rich, he re-
f1ected that he had never receipted for said
boots and shoes, SO he proceeded to the
Anger House with constable to detain
the lecturers baggage This consisted OF.
the famous panorama, absolutely essential
to illustrate the narrative but Higgins
while the constable stood by. raised his
great hoof, burst open the door, and ap:
cpropriated panorama, dress, fsait, a manu-
Script and curling tongs Here was more
humorous dilemma than amy the great
Snowman, had instanced. The audience
meanwhile, assembled. Browne pleaded
and wept Higgins, like l6hylock,A had
whetted his knife upon his SOUL and meant
to cut the cheek from the ba abrupt there,
at the last gasp relief came friends, sat
isfled that the house was q success, adj
vanced the funds, and Higgins went into
history as the man who stood between
America and her great humorist. a.,
hu,t In the beginning Artemus Ward lectured
before alyceums and associations. He re-
solved at last to embark upon the advenr
turous career of a professional Snowman,
and it may be said that, henceforward, he
wrote little that confirmed his earlier re-
pute. BY dint of hard travelling, a new
and saucy way of advertising, and passing
everywhere for LIBERAL cOmpanionable
fellow he made his Entertainment sue
cessful until the winterof 1860. AdmOn-
'ished by lessening houses In the PROVINCES
that the Mormon pictures would no longer
1Graw, he gave one good bye season in
ENew York, where his health failed; and
.tthe project ola lecturing speculation in
,EEurope resolved into trip imminent for
! health's g. sake. He had expended his vital
forces cough and1assitude succeeded; he
set sail in the spring of 1865. ( Z.
j Wards was not g mind of great suggest
iveness, though his shrewd Snowman 8
nature was always on the qui cjDe for at
| fractions. His favorite project before his
departure for Europe, was to write q lec-
ture upon Broadway illustrated by apa1i
Drama, to be-, in a>sense, an advertisement
Of hotels and business houses as well as a
humorous entertainment. Few persons
know how deXterously and thorough
ly he enlarged his acquaintance in New
| York with this end in view His temper
ament was lettering but not indolent; his
worst business fault was love of promiscu-
GUS and familiar eompanionship. he wrote
| little during the two past years because he
mistrusted his art somewhat and because
he wished to intensity his lecture. The
flew papers he contrfved -iir 1864 i65- '66
were laboriously put together, and he re-
ceiyed suggestions for them thankfully A
| friend esnght. him once at theDe Sptp-his
| favorite resort-a fork in one hand, a tur-
| key bone in the other, his thin frosty nose
wrinkling at the bridge, SAYING a-3
-Aywiee father knows his own son, and
viftus is folly be wise a rolling stone
gathersano beggars on horseback, ne Plus
u1,u'e e Jlurso,ts ultra 9"- q
The facility with which he caught odd
! fragments of conversation was equal to the
ludicrous perseverance with which he
rolled them over and over, to get them at
the fullest climax of absurdity His aids
Ito composition were more frequently
clowns than wits; he knew more negro
| minstels than any man who wrote the En-
glish Language, and heard with infinite
delight and profit their phrasealogy Every
street bon mot was grist to his mill, He
invented the term 'sSecesh, 5" You bet +"
f"1husly ~ and a hundred other not very
+ pertinent expressions which became pop
| dllar through some rational hallucination.
He probably never knew himself the princi
Piles by which he made bad spelling merri
ment, though there must be some philoso
ply for even this phenomenon. -,
| His impudence---to call it by no LESSER
;name--was extraordinary, and his practi-
cal. jokes wete more. numerous than his
written ones. He was in the habit of stop
ping staid looking gentlemen on the
Why, Mr.. Brooks, how is your family?"
= 81 fear, = exclaims the alleged Mr..
Brooks 90 that you have mistaken mel"
1 q hit ~ raxya IVo Y1r a. -c,,. cold