Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-03-19
The Last La, Days avs Of Artemus Ward,

PERSONAL Notes from a Friend who
esspg Left him late tn December. b
~ lErom the Nashville Banner of Tuesday ~
parted from Artemus Ward in London
on the evening of the 21stof last December.
He had spent the day with me- and, accom-
panied by Mr.. Arthur Sketchly, who had
dropped in after dinner, left about six
O1cl0ek for his lecture room in Egyptian
Hall. At the time he was too feeble to
walk alone, and was continually struggling
to breathe with freedom. His surgeon had
positively interdicted the use of wine or
liquor, but he drank quantities of water,
eating little and taking no exercise at all
Yet hecOntinued to keep up appearances
before the crowds that flocked to hear him,
and even in London his critical state of
health was not suspected.
Early in September / had found him
quietly, but regularly and industriously,
arrsInging for his debut. He had preceded
me about six, weeks, and was already MAX
ing very decided advances toward those in
terror circles of the press, literature and
society at large, which are almost essential
to the success of a newcomer in London
Mr. Chas. Reade and Mr.. Andrew Halliday
were jealous friends, and to the introduc-
ton OF the latter he was indebted for his
early admission to the Savage Club, the
body corporate of the younger members of
London journalism. Here he was at home.
His sprightly manners, engaging DISPOSE
tion, and well directed hOspitality-tact
and odiscernment being among his most
striking developments-soon won him a
whole corps of faithful friends and hackers
distributed throughoutthe newspapers and
periodicals of the metropolis. Thus his
success was assured from the first. On the
raw November evening when he ''opened''
at Egyptian Hall, the room was crowded
with an audience of literary men and wo-
men, great and small, from Swinburne and
n FRI
and reporters of the morning papers. The
next day every paper in London, eXceptthe
Times, contained a glowing account; and
four days after.sthe Times, seeing how the
wind blew, came out with column of
ardent eulogy. From this time forward
each evening was an ovation. Seats were
engaged for week in advance. Up and
down Piccadilly, from st. James Church
to St. James street, carriages bearing the
first arms in the Kingdom, were thronged
night after night; and on the evening of
the 21st of December, six weeks after, there
was no falling off. The success was COM
plete. 1t was truly, IN theatrical par
lance, 'simmense.o - ass ~ 1-;sr- i Z,
r All this while the poor author of the
sport was dying by inches. The ldraught
upon his animal spirit, the bodily fatigue of
"getting himself up to it, the s'damnable
iteration of the lecture ITSELF wore him
out. George, lad whom he had brought
his room like child. His quarters (54
PiccadilIy) were just opposite the Hall,
but frequently he could not go backward
and forward without assistance. 1t was
painful in the extreme to see the man who
had undergone these tortures behind the
curtain, step lightly before the audience
amid burst of merriment, and tor more
than an hour sustaining the part of Jester,
tossing his cap and jingling his bells, a
very deaths head, as it proved TO be, for the
amusement of the company. -
His old good nature forsook him. He
became excessively nervous and fretful.
The fog. he said, felt like a damp pail that
was surely wrapping him in. Atone of his
entertainments he made grim, half-cOmic
AllusiOn to this, "but, " said he, re1eFIing to
it, ssit was not success. The English are
terribly scary about death. FIJI have to-
give it7uD.s n go sSe aEb5a szAaA
He did not continue his contributions to
Punch after he began to appear before the
n,1blie. and the esdiscontinuance was made
fl1e occasion of some illnatured remarks in
one or two American papers. As these re:
marks have been more generally credited
thar the fact would justify, may be pard-
med q particular account of the whole |
transaction with Messrs. Bradbury d
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