Part 7 (1/2)

”Our aiement, had reference to our own circulation in the United States, which exceeds twenty-seven thousand weekly”

I suggested to Artemus that he enter his book, ”Artemus Ward in London,”

in advance, and he did write to Oakey Hall, his New York lawyer, to that effect Before he received an answer fro the book Considering this a piratical design on the part of Carleton, he addressed that enterprising publisher a savage letter, but the matter was ultimately cleared up to his satisfaction, for he said just before we parted: ”It was all a mistake about Carleton I did him an injustice and mean to ask his pardon

He has behaved very handsomely to me” Then the letters reappeared in Punch

V

Whatever ht of theland was undeniable They were more talked about than any current literaryor dinner party at which they were not discussed There did seerotesque in this ruthless Yankee poking in a the revered antiquities of Britain, so that the beef-eating British thehter They took his jokes in excellent part

The letters on the Tower and Chaere palpable hits, and it was generally agreed that Punch had contained nothing better since the days of Yellow-plush This opinion was not confined to the h-brows of the reviews and the appreciative of society, and gained Arteo

Invitations pursued him and he was even elected to two or three fashi+onable clubs But he had a preference for those which were less conventional His admission to the Garrick, which had been at first ”laid over,” affords an exaentleman who proposed him used his pseudonym, Artemus Ward, instead of his own na him to Mr Alexander Mace, a leading ether at the Garrick clubhouse, when the ht up and explained The result was that Charles F Broas elected at the next , where Artemus Ward, had been made to stand aside

Before Christuished people, nobility and gentry as well as men of letters, to spend the week-end with them But he declined them all He needed his vacation, he said, for rest He had neither the strength nor the spirit for the season

Yet was he delighted with the English people and with English life His was one of those receptive natures which enjoy whatever is wholesome and sunny In spite of his bodily pain, he entertained a lively hope of co, and did not realize his true condition

He merely said, ”I have overworked ether” Heas his welco off in his audience, would close his season and go to the continent His receipts averaged about three hundred dollars a night, whilst his expenses were not fifty dollars ”This, mind you,” he used to say, ”is in very hard cash, an article altogether superior to that of my friend Charles Reade”

[Illustration: Artes enough to ive up ”this reat respect for scholarly culture and personal respectability, and thought that if he could get tienteel comedy line” He had a hu comic essays than any he had atte for an Ahfalutin as the Atlantic nor so popular as Harper's” Histo soar above the show Except for the nervous worry of ill-health, he was the kind-hearted, unaffected Arteirl and liberal as a prince He once showed me his daybook in which were noted down over five hundred dollars lent out in sent Aet half of it back”

”Of course not,” he said, ”but do you think I can afford to have a lot of loose fellows black-guarding n or so over here?”

There was no lack of independence, however, about hiave Mrs Jefferson Davis in New Orleans, which was denounced at the North as toadying to the Rebels, proceeded from a wholly different motive He took a kindly interest in the case because it was represented to hi, and knew very well at the time that his bounty would usto an interview he once had with Murat Halstead, who had printed a tart paragraph about hian in his usual jocose way to ask for the needful correction Halstead resented the proffered fa front, that he ”didn't care a d--n for the Coo to hell” Next day the paper appeared with a handsome amende, and the two became excellent friends ”I have no doubt,” said Arteusted Halstead, and he would have put it to hter As it was, he concluded that I was not a sneak, and treatedoffers from book publishers in London

Several of the Annuals for 1866-67 contain sketches, some of them anonymous, written by him, for all of which he ell paid He wrote for Fun--the editor of which, Mr Toreat humorist, was an intimate friend--as well as for Punch; his contributions to the fornature If he had been permitted to reh, hat he had already, to attain the independence which was his aim and hope His best friends in London were Charles Reade, Tom Hood, Tom Robertson, the dramatist, Charles Mathews, the comedian, Tom Taylor and Arthur Sketchley He did not h Mr Andrew Haliday, dickens' familiar, was also his intimate He was much persecuted by lion hunters, and therefore had to keep his lodgings so of a mystery

So little is known of Arteraphic particularsin interest

Charles F Broas born at Waterford, Maine, the 15th of July, 1833

His father was a state senator, a probate judge, and at one time a wealthy citizen; but at his death, when his famous son was yet a lad, left his family little or no property Charles apprenticed hifield and then in Boston In the latter city he made the acquaintance of shi+laber, Ben Perley Poore, Halpine, and others, and tried his hand as a ”sketchist”

for a volunature of ”Chub” Frorated to the West At Toledo, Ohio, he worked as a ”typo” and later as a ”local” on a Toledo newspaper Then he went to Cleveland, where as city editor of the Plain Dealer he began the peculiar vein from which still later he worked so successfully

The soubriquet ”Arteeneral It was suggested by an actual personality In an adjoining town to Cleveland there was a snake char or half-wit, the laughing stock of the countryside

Browne's first conature of Artemus Ward purported to emanate from this person, and it succeeded so well that he kept it up He widened the conception as he progressed It was not long before his sketches began to be copied and he became a newspaper favorite He remained in Cleveland from 1857 to 1860, when he was called to New York to take the editorshi+p of a venture called Vanity Fair This died soon after But he did not die with it A year later, in the fall of 1861, he made his appearance as a lecturer at New London, and ement Then he set out _en tour_, returned to the metropolis, hired a hall and opened with ”the show” Thence onward all ell