The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1867-04-04
The Hnmnr Of Artamns Ward.

The Humor Of Artemus Ward.
The following excellent and approciative
analysis of the peculiar humor OF ''Artemus
Ward, as lecturer, is from the pen Of
THOMAS HUGHES, author Of "Sch0ol-days at
Rugby" in an article in the London Spectc-
to-, which appeared soon after Mr. Browne
made bis debut last winter before London
audiences
''Fbe Impression Artemus Ward contrives
to produce, says Mr.. Hughes, is, that his
Commissions of thought aud speech all in
evltabe on his own part, that his mind
drives on helplessiy from one Of these gro
tesque ideas or expressions to the next, as
the creature or victim Of some over ruling
power, which CHOOSES his thought and Ian
guage for him, so that he is not even par
~ to the transaction though he has al,
earnest and rather melancholy interest u
the result = He never smiles, but
looks on the contrary, as if lie was above
all things solritous to get his thoughts
really dlsentangIed this time when he is APP
preaching one Of bis comparisons When
he first appears for instance he says, with
| the greatest simplicity and pathetic klud
think at all highly Of MS entertainment, o.
expect much tro,u it; that lie only hopes to
aiu from it a small sum Of m )ney sufli-
cieut TO take him to New Zealand tor he
adds Ii could only 20 to New Zealand
should feel that had not wholly lived III
Vain; aud then as tile audience laughed t
tiis very new recipe for avoiding coon
petoly vain life, lie adds With eagrru, SIS
and clnIdIike sort Of etfuson 10 his andl
dlence-''i don t l0aDt to live wholly in
vain at which of course, the laughter
deepeus into a hearty roar. This is IA type
OF The Whole character Of Ills humor he
gets no d OF TWO Inconsistent ana arbitrarily
absurd ideas, connects them with Il sort Of
simple fefVor III his owu mind aud presses
then on bIs he ,rers with an air Of
pldlntive good faith, that is quite rresisCi
bic. Is Nothing is better than ms
eager, ardent way Of prop )unding ID tIuisn.
You cannot BvoId the conviction for mo
ment that II has uSt struck him as ii real
truth When he points to one Of the range
Of mountains III Utah, and says with au tv-
ldeut wish 10 be useful TO his audieuCe The
highest part Of this mountain is the top, or,
pointing 10 one of the horses on toe prairie
That beautiful and interesting animal is ID
horse it was long time before discovered
tin spite OF the exceeding simplicity and
obviousness Of the joke, which any clown in
pantomine might have made as well, he
reaches the sense CT humor simply 10y the
Iengaglng earuestness and 8UtUele of his
speech.
Perhaps the most humorous part of Arte-
mus Ward S lecture, however is the uatur-
al, uDreslstiug way in which he drifts about
III search Of g ords and phrases, often con
veying Sense Of difficulty and of conscious
error, and then correcting himself by the
use of a phrase sill more ludricrous, and
on which he Seems t 0 have been landed by
imp eriouS necessity. Thus when he says
that he used to sing, but not so we'll, he
stunbes in the most natural way andis q
prey TO melancholy that he can't hit ON u
proper phrase ''As songer," he says 81
vas not successful and then in depressed
and self correcting way, conscious he has
gone wrong AS a siDgster | was failure.
| am always saddest hen | sing-and so
are those who hear me- The art with
Which he gives the impression that lie is
laundering along in his choice Of words the
| victim OF the fist verbal association that
strikes his memory and yet just familiar
enough with language to feel uncertain as
to lis ground, and TO wish to get hold of
sorue clearer term, is beyond praise. \ x y
Artemus Ward in AL his best i0<cs-of
course like other professional iokers he has
some poorer ones at which it is wrong to
smile is au lutriectnalizpd form of the Ger
man village sinpetnu, Hams He Vi, Ids
literal ohcdieuce To every absurd suggestion
OF thought and language just as Hans does
to the verbal direction Of his wife or nother
and gets into an intellectual absurdity.
This with the melancholy, earnest manner
OF = inan completely unconscious that there
is anything grotesque in what he says, con
Veys an effect Of iuimitable humOr'
%
THE GRAND MYSTERY, Prof. Tyndall,
one OF the most eminent Of living men in nat
ural science, recently gave a series of lectures
in London on Migratory motion" He con
Guided the closing lecture with description
OF the ear. A London lettersays: He had no
pictures or diagrams, ana chaiked nothing for
the eye, bu; used The Imagination OF those
present the pigment with which he enabled
Us 10 visualize that wonderful natural harp
the human ear-wlrh its chords, it's sounding
crystals, and lis Vi 5rating reeds rooted in the
brain beneath, stirred by every breath above.
As he Went on his eye famed with a mystic
fire, and he presently paused and said with a
low, thrilling tone. 1T is Impossible to speak
OF these things without falling down in Won
der and worshipr He knew that the clergy
Lad industriousIy circulated the charge of
atheism against him and his school OF thought,
and doubtless remembered this as he said fur
ther: Ladies' and Gentlemen no man more
than the man devoted to science feels more
perpetually the mysterious power and pres
ence that surrounds us. His every inquiry ends
therein his own ignorance before that grand
mystery what he objects to is the childish
interpretations and dogmas put forth by igno-
rance conc erning It,"
E9g" The Executive Committee of the WIS
consin State Agriculture Society have de-
cided to hold the next Annual Fur at Mad
son, during the last week in September