The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-10-12
ARTEMUS WARDS HUMOR
LETTERS WRITTEN BY HIM IN THE
 SIXTIES
No MT. Wilcox who is Now Cashier of the First National Bank in Litchfeld.

the First National Bank im Litchfeld. The contents of bundle of letters,
 Drowned with age, which Artemus Ward (Chares Farrar BroWne) wrote
 to his friend, Charles F. Wilson, in his
 early eos, shows clearly to-day that
 Browne was full of quaint humor that bubbled over continually, whether he was writing for publication or oth- | erWise, MT. Wilson is now the cashier 1 of the First National bank of Litch- field. At the time the letters were writ
 ten he was the business manager of the
 Cleveland (O) Plaindealer, in which
 very many of the Artemus Ward letters
 were first published The Wilson let | ters covered the period elapsing from the ] time Browne left the Plaindealer until
 just before he went on the road as a l lecturer. After leaving Cleveland he 1 travelled for a short time in the central
 western states at a salary of twenty l five dollars a week as the advance 1 agent of one Dodge, "a travelling con- cert man." whose abilities to entertain
 were so inferior to Browne's that the latter proved a bigger drawing card
 in the cities visited than did Dodge
 himself. He left Dodge upon his arri- val at Chicago. After this he appeared
 for night or two on the stage with
 Sanford's minstrels in Pittsburg, where
 noiseless banjo, and with his talks
 made still another hit.
 Browne was in reality working bis
 way to New York to endeavor to car
 " out his plan of publishing his book
 of Ward letters and of joining the edi-
 torial staff of Vanity Fair. Much of his
 best work in the Wards" as he called
 them, had been done at very low
 rate of compensation, and he had for
 some time been duplicating these let
 ters to Vanity Fair from the Plain
 dealer office at ten dollars a letter, to
 the disgust of the owner of the news
 pdpNl, Nlip, tiliPlOS ITS L'iph IN o' NiNS
 editor at ten or twelve dollars a week,
 held that the latter had no right to sell
 his copy elsewhere.
 One of the early Wilson letters was
 written in Chicago on December 22, 1860. It says: T have cut loose from the concert business. Wrote Dodge yesterday that sickness in my family demanded my immediate presence at home, and came on here. On the cars l encountered the Chicago academy of science, some one hundred ladies and gentlemen. They made an immense splurge over me and elected me an hon orary member. l go to Pittsburg Mon day, thence to New York. You know what a vindictive devil Dodge is, and l expect he will raise jolly breeze over my leaving him, though I cant see wherein l have acted dishonoraby. The folly, the madness of continuing with him grew every day more appa- rent I have picked up numerous good things on my trip"
 Wards next letter is dated from the | office of Vanity Fair on January 2, 1861. He says: While at Philadelphia l met l Dixie of Sanford's troupe, who enter tained me there and altogether I nev- CT spent a happier two days All the l railroad fare I had to pay between Chicago and New York was seventy | five cents from Brunswick, N J. The | conductor to that point dead-headed me l at the special request of s. s. Sanford, ] delineator of negro character. In addi- | tion to this good luck, I must mention that Ed Bacon, formerly of the c. and | P. railroad, and now general ticket | agent at Pittsburg, gave me a diamond | ring worth sixty dollars when I parted | with him. Went to the office of Vanity Fair this morning. Good fellows glad to see me, Talked ten minutes and made a permanent engagement a twenty dollars a week as one of the ed- itors of the paper. MT. Leland is edi- tor-in-chief. I am to report at 3:30 D. ln Am to read all the exchanges, cut out everything of which anything can be made, write what l want to and Wards when l feel like it. l am told I can pick up ten dollars a week or so extra writing for other papers.
 Shall board where I now am, the Western Hotel, for the present-seven dollars week with good room, Think can live cheaper than this when I learn the ropes, but the landlord is a particular friend of mine and treats me princely Am already on the free list 1t the minstrels and circus. Shall fetch the theaters directly.
 "I have thus told you all about my self. l am certainly a lucky cuss lon't understand it myself but it is SO. AS soon as l get started l shall make hings whzz, so to speak. l intend to lnoW everybody on Broadway in about six months. I shall withhold my book Or the present until the panic sub sides, l am speaking of myself princi- lally in this letter. I sec, but I know | 7ou feel so elated oyer my prospects hat l can't restrain a little saf-glori- l ication. Give my love to Lester. Tell | Jim he's a splen' fcller from a legal point of view. l have heard of him in oreign lands. Won't you have this published in the Plaindealer?
 Charles F. Browne: This gentle nan, widely known as the former local ! ditor of this paper has at last reached JeW York and joined the editorial corps f Vanity Fair 1
 At a later date in the winter Browne writes that his book twill positively ap- 'ear in the spring, published by Derby | Judson. 49S Broadway, and unques- | ionably the best house ill the city.