ARTEMUS WARD AMONG THE FENIANS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8170, 23 August 1887, Page 7

ARTEMUS WARD AMONG THE FENIANS.

Artemns Ward having attended a Fenian v meeting and made an unpopular speech, he °°l sat* I down. There was ho applaws, but they listened to me kindly. They tnow d I was honest, however wrong I might be . and they know’d too, that there was nopesop]le on - arth whose generosity and gaHantry I b d a higher respect for than the Irish, excep when they fly off the hendle, to my feller ■ citizens let me toot my horn. But Squire Thaxter put his hand onto my ‘ed and said, in a mournful tone of vois, Mr Ward, your mind is failm. Your intellect totters ! You are only about sixty vears of yet you will soon be a dnvelm ' dotard, and hav’ no control over yourself.’ , , , «x have no control over my arms now, I replied, drivin’ my elbows suddenly into the : -Squire’s stomack, which caused that corpulent magistrate to fall vilenlly off the stage '-into the tiddler’s box, where he stuck his •ven rble hed into a base drum, and stated * Murder' twice, in a very loud voice. It was late when I got home. The children and my wife were all abed. But a candle—a candle made from taller of our own > raisin’—gleamed in Betsey’s room; it gleamed ’for I! All was still. The swee; silver moon was a- shinin' bright, and the beautiful stars were up to their usml doin’s ! I felt a sentyrnental mood so gently ore me atealin , and I pawsed before Betsey’s winder, and sung, '.in a kind of op’ratio vois, as follers, improm'&oo, to wit: — Wake, Betsey, wake. My sweet galoot! Rise np, fair lady. While I touch my lute ! The winder—l regret to say that the winder went up with a vi’lent crash, and a form vxobed in pure white exclaimed, 4 Cum into •the house you old fool. Totnorree you 11 be . coin’ round complanin’ about your liver, I went to bed at last. ‘And so.’ I said, -thou hast no ear for sweet melody V A silvery snore was my only answer.