The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-12
NEW YORK LETTER.
Some Of the IIunor Of Old Arte,
mus Ward Recalled.
Electrical Ganglions OF the G1obe-A visit
to the Busiest Telegraph Center In
the Universe-Normile and
Ingersoll.
lcoPYRIGHr. 1927

G6IS III NEW 1Okh 6Cou1Ouoly fAOOP oWoJ
from writers for the public prints, and
pride themselves upon preserving their
privacy. An old leather merchant died
down in the swamp the other day and
left an estate of $4,000, 900, which in
teres5ing fact was duly mentioned in the
newspapers, with expressions OF sur
prise, since, had the old man been
known in his lifetime to possess so
much of the one thing needful, he could
not have gone to lunch without having
somebody to take note Of it. AS it was
nobody had ever heard of him outside
of his own chosen circle of friends and
relatives. And very pleasant sort OF
life should say that would be, too. ]
met ARENAS Ward on the street a day
or two ago. s'What," you will all say,
s'Artemus Ward died quarter of CEN
fury ago!'' So did the one; but the very
interesting New Yorker of whom am
speaking spells his first name with the
difference of one letter, and is an en-
thusiastic admirer of his predecessor in
name and fame. ARENAS Ward devotes
himself 20 spreading the fame of sapo-
lilo, and he seems to me to have spread
1t very thick.
He is the manager of one of the larg-
est manufacturing establishments in
the world, a serious looking, bearded,
brown-eyed business man OF sturdy
figure and quiet, methodical. Millions
of dollars filter through his fingers
every month, and a lifetime of service
has secured and retained for him the
respect and gratitude of his employers.
In return for a liberal salary his active
life is entirely devoted to their inter-
ests, and he is scarcely ever seen ex-
cept in his office or his home, or on the
way between. Yet his is quaint per-
sonality, richly worth character
study, and of vast Importance when one
considers the enornlity of the transac-
tions with which his personality is
blended He is quiet jester, too, pre-
Stunning in no way on the similarity of
his name to that of the great Ward,
which he justly observes is not his
fault As student of Artemus Wards
works and witticisms, ARENAS Ward
is especially interesting. 'sArtemus
Ward" was, of course, Charles Farrar
Browne, who was born in Waterford,
Me-, in 1884, and died in Southampton,
England, March 6, 1867. Every body
who has ever seen BARLEY Campbell.
whose tall. 1ank figure, long nose and
rather saturnine expression made him a
parsonage on Broadway from the time
he first settled in New York, may form
an excellent idea of what Artemus
IL 1S1ya ~, tho HaSh avnaNt
that Ward had much darker and bush
Ter hair, curling in ringlets at the ends.
and a heavier and more poetical mus
tache, blending, indeed, in some inter
esting way, and to striking degree, the
physiognomy of BARLEY Campbell with
that of Edgar Allan Poe.
It has always been a mystery what
became of Artemus Wards property.
Jim Fisks Erie stock vanished when he
died, at least no trace of it ever came to
his executors, and the large amount of
personal property which Artemus Ward
must have been possessed of very short
ly before his death seemed almost as
mysteriously to vanish. His last season
in London, just before his death, had
netted him for six weeks at least $500 a
night. A friend saw on his bedroom
table pile of bills amounting to $12,-
900 not long before his demise He had
valuable diamonds and a very heavy
gold watch and chain. The little old
homestead just above New York city at
Yonkers on the Hudson he had cleared
of debt within short time, and had
willed it to his mother. But that was
all she ever received from his estate,
nor has there ever been any sattsfac-
tory explanation of the loss. A SUBJ
scription was taken up after his
death to put a monument over his
last resting place. The enormous sum
of s35 was raised, and as the fund re-
| manned at this figure for several years,
| without showing signs of growth, that
amount was finally turned over to his
mother, poor old woman, who pur-
chased with it the stone which now
stands upon his grave. Every now and
then one hears of some new witticism
said ito be the offspring of his fertile
| brain. Lido not. know whether the
newspaper public remembers that he
once said this of the discovery Of Amer
| lea: .ss
SIT cost Columbus 900 to fit out
his explorin' expedition. If he had been
| O. sensible man, he'd have put the
money in a boss railroad or gas COM
pany, and left this magnificent CONT
nent to intelligent .savages, who, when
they got hold good thing, knew
enough to keep it. y y Chris meant
well, but he put his foot in it when he
sailed for America
| ] think the funniest thing he ever
did, however, was his lecture called:
Among the Mormons. He used
panorama to illustrate it, and there
was more genuine fun in a glance at
! that panorama than in a whole cart
load of contemporary humor. ] can
hear him now, as he took up his print
ed programme one night in Hamilton,
O., and described Virginia City. "a
wild place. Game abundant principal
ly faro and bluff Shooting in conse-
quence. Every man carries revolver,
and every other man two. Silver mines.
The treasury carefully guarded, each
proprietor keeping a silver watch.
The Great Desert-a dreary waste OF