Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-05-14

i
quiry told him that she had a son
killed at the capture Of Fort Pillow.
From that time forward Browne
omitted the reference, as he did every
thing that he thought might sadden
the heart of any of his listeners.
He went on the platform simply for
the money that was in 1t for him 1t
was trial to stand before crowd and
talk in his inimitable fashion, but
was q greater trial to be poor, and he
used every legitimate means OF earn
ing higher wages. Bonner, Of the Led
ger, offered him a handsome salary
for a weekly letter.
"I needed the money badly" he said,
"and the offer was tempting, but I
wasn't fool enough to accept 1t. To
try to grind out an Artemus Ward
column each week would have result
ed in the dreariest drizzle and would
have ruined forever what little repu-
tation had made"
He was given an editorial situation
on Vanity Fair, in which for a time
his letters first appeared. Only one
Issue Of that paper ever paid expenses
the one that described in a poeticai
way the visit Of the Prince Of Wales to
this country in 1860. Browne told
me his method of formulating his let
ters.
81 wait till some fancy strikes me.
| l-.L.1t, ~, ga ~, ts @oIlou,ad hv aunth-
er. When there are half a dozen or
so put them to paper. I may write
two letters the same week and then
month or more may go by without my
formulating a paragraph.
"You can see from this what a Ia
tai thing 1t would have been for me to
bind myself to write a weekly letter,
no matter how high the price paid.
For instance, a little whim struck me
the other day. It was to refer to a
person as having Auburn (Sing Sing)
hair that is, cut short I'll work 1t
into one Of my letters, after several
others come to me-"
But, so far as Is known, this conceit
was never put into print by the quaint
humorist, and 1t is therefore at the
disposal Of any one who can make
use Of 1t.
When writing those letters Browne
would laugh and chuckle to himself.
sitting with one leg thrown over the
arm of his chair, while between sem
tences he jabbed the blade Of his
pocket knife into the wood. When 1t
was finished he was as delighted as q
boy with a new trinket.
His spirits would overflow until per-
haps when he retired to his room late
at night Then he would lock his door
and pace the floor for hours, victim
to his horror of death, so great at
times that he almost sank into q col
lapse. He must have known that the
seeds of consumption were within his
frame and that but a few years were
left to him.
Browne was a genuine wit and hui
morist. Some of his best things never
appeared in print
His deftness in twisting and hand
ling words was unapproachable. He
was the only American that ever lived
whose spelling was really laughable.
Josh Billings and others have spelled
incorrectly, but without the slightest
approach to humor. recall Brownies
dating of one Of his letters, "Onto the
Wing, Joon 1S1Ss0." his "puserianer-
mus cuss," his "aboose," his fjit" and
scores Of that style whose appearance
brought smile to the reader.
When the writer complimented him
on his ability thus to handle words he
replied that he was ashamed Of 1t.
That the humor should be independent
Of such aids, as he maintained, was
undoubtedly true, but no other writer
was such a genius in that special
line. fa
When I protested he replied that his
reformation would be gradual. but 1t
was already under way. It will be re-
membered that the orthography OF his
last writings was beyond criticism,
but his powers were waning, and his
productions were much inferior to his
earlier letters, adding little or moth
ing to the fame of one Of the most
genuine Of American humorists.