ARTEMUS WARD'S LIST DAYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1752, 20 June 1885, Page 25

ARTEMUS WARD'S LIST DAYS.

Artemua Ward had a great longing to come to London and give his lecture at the Egyptian Hall. That longing was destined to be gratified, but it waa the last. He thought " The Mormons" would do very well, and it did. He knew his lungs were affected, and he knew he muse die ; but he did not quite know how soon.

He came here in 1867. I heard him once only, about a few weeks before he died. He looked very thin and ill. He coughed a good deal, and could only speak for about threequarters of an hour, but was quite irresistible. He was soon unable to continue his entertainment. "In the fight between youth and death," writes his friend Robertson, "death was to conquer." His doctor sent him to Jersey ; but the sea breezes did him no good. He wrote, genial and sympathetic to the end, that " his lonoliness weighed on him." He tried to get back to to wn, but only got aa far as Southampton ; there many friends went down from London to boo the last of him — two at a time. Hingacon never left him, and the consul of the United States was full of the kindliest attentions. A wealthy American had offered the Prince of Wales a handsome American- built yacht. "It seams, old fellow," said poor Artemus, as he made his last joke to Hingston, who sat by him, "ie seems the fashion for every one to present the Prince of Wales with something. I think I shall leave him my panorama.",, His cheerfulness seldom left him, except when he thought of his old mother, and then he would grow terribly sad.

But the end was at hand.

" Charles Browne," writes his friendßobertson, in modest but feeling terms, "died beloved and regretted by all who knew him, and when he drew his last breath there passed away the spirit of a true gentleman." One of the many charms and surprises of Ward was his double character. Between the rough Showman of his book and the refinedlooking, intellectual master of wit, without a touch of personal vulgarity, tho chasm seemed immenue, and yet on his appearance it was instantly bridged. The vehicle which ha affected in his writings was happily chosen. There is more in that native Showman nomine Artemua Ward, than meets the European eye at a glance. He was a type — one ot those originals in which America delights. A man of the people, with little education, thrown out early upon the world ; Jackof all-trades, keen, Bhrewd — his mind aD incongruous mixture of ideas, with an eye quick to detect foible-3 and inconsistencies of character. Sharp at business, lull of low humour, half satirist, halt buffoon, ready with equal effrontery to turn his hand to anything. Storekeeper, nigger-driver, travelling dentist, photographer, or " going around " with a show of " wax figgers," curiosities, wild beasts alive and stuffed.

Such a life had its advantages as well as its drawbacks. It was the way to see many men and cities ; to learn many things, some of which might as well have been let alone ; to get experience and to waste time ; to gain and lose money, and to make jokes, — H. R. Haweis.