WISE MAN:--"Ah! you poor foolish little girl--here is a dollar for you."FOOLISH LITTLE GIRL:--"Thank you, sir; but I have a sister at home as foolish as I am; can't you give me a dollar for her?"Charles Browne was not successful as a NEWS reporter, lacking enterprise and energy, but his success lay in writing up in a burlesque manner well-known public affairs like prize-fights, races, spiritual meetings, and political gatherings.His department became wonderfully humorous, and was always a favorite with readers, whether there was any news in it or not.Sometimes he would have a whole column of letters from young ladies in reply to a fancied matrimonial advertisement, and then he would have a column of answers to general correspondents like this:--VERITAS:--Many make the same error.Mr.Key, who wrote the "Star Spangled Banner," is not the author of Hamlet, a tragedy.He wrote the banner business, and assisted in "The Female Pirate,"BUT DID NOT WRITE HAMLET.Hamlet was written by a talented but unscrupulous man named Macbeth, afterwards tried and executed for "murdering sleep."YOUNG CLERGYMAN:--Two pints of rum, two quarts of hot water, tea-cup of sugar, and a lemon; grate in nutmeg, stir thoroughly and drink while hot.
It was during his engagement on the "Plaindealer" that he wrote, dating from Indiana, his first communication,--the first published letter following this sketch, signed "Artemus Ward" a sobriquet purely incidental, but borne with the "u" changed to an "a" by an American revolutionary general.It was here that Mr.
Browne first became, IN WORDS, the possessor of a moral show "consisting of three moral bares, the a kangaroo (a amoozing little rascal; 'twould make you larf yourself to death to see the little kuss jump and squeal), wax figures of G.Washington, &c.
&c." Hundreds of newspapers copied this letter, and Charles Browne awoke one morning to find himself famous.
In the "Plaindealer" office, his companion, George Hoyt, writes:
"His desk was a rickety table which had been whittled and gashed until it looked as if it had been the victim of lightning.His chair was a fit companion thereto,--a wabbling, unsteady affair, sometimes with four and sometimes with three legs.But Browne saw neither the table, nor the chair, nor any person who might be near, nothing, in fact, but the funny pictures which were tumbling out of his brain.When writing, his gaunt form looked ridiculous enough.One leg hung over the arm of his chair like a great hook, while he would write away, sometimes laughing to himself, and then slapping the table in the excess of his mirth."While in the office of the "Plaindealer," Mr.Browne first conceived the idea of becoming a lecturer.In attending the various minstrel shows and circuses which came to the city, he would frequently hear repeated some story of his own which the audience would receive with hilarity.His best witticisms came back to him from the lips of another who made a living by quoting a stolen jest.Then the thought came to him to enter the lecture field himself, and become the utterer of his own witticisms--the mouthpiece of his own jests.
On the 10th of November, 1860, Charles Browne, whose fame, traveling in his letters from Boston to San Francisco, had now become national, grasped the hands of his hundreds of New York admirers.Cleveland had throned him the monarch of mirth, and a thousand hearts paid him tributes of adulation as he closed his connection with the Cleveland Press.
Arriving in the Empire City, Mr.Browne soon opened an engagement with "Vanity Fair," a humorous paper after the manner of London "Punch," and ere long he succeeded Mr.Charles G.Leland as editor.Mr.Charles Dawson Shanly says: "After Artemus Ward became sole editor, a position which he held for a brief period, many of his best contributions were given to the public; and, whatever there was of merit in the columns of "Vanity Fair" from the time he assumed the editorial charge, emanated from his pen."Mr.Browne himself wrote to a friend: "Comic copy is what they wanted for "Vanity Fair." I wrote some and it killed it.The poor paper got to be a conundrum, and so I gave it up."The idea of entering the field as a lecturer now seized Mr.
Browne stronger than ever.Tired of the pen, he resolved on trying the platform.His Bohemian friends agreed that his fame and fortune would be made before intelligent audiences.He resolved to try it.What should be the subject of my lecture?
How shall I treat the subject? These questions caused Mr.Browne grave speculations.Among other schemes, he thought of a string of jests combined with a stream of satire, the whole being unconnected--a burlesque upon a lecture.The subject,--that was a hard question.First he thought of calling it "My Seven Grandmothers," but he finally adopted the name of "Babes in the Woods," and with this subject Charles Browne was introduced to a metropolitan audience, on the evening of December 23d, 1861.The place was Clinton Hall, which stood on the site of the old Astor Place Opera House, where years ago occurred the Macready riot, and where now is the Mercantile Library.Previous to this introduction, Mr.Frank Wood accompanied him to the suburban town of Norwich, Connecticut, where he first delivered his lecture, and watched the result.The audience was delighted, and Mr.
Browne received an ovation.Previous to his Clinton Hall appearance the city was flooded with funny placards reading--ARTEMUS WARD
WILL
SPEAK A PIECE.
