OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 34 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 April 16, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits- part 34. notes by S. Kelly +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ part 34. Charles Farrar Brown [ ARTEMUS WARD ] 1834--1867 "It ain't so much what people don't know that hurts as what they know that ain't so. I am happiest when I am idle. I could live for months without performing any kind of labor, and at the expiration of that time I should feel fresh and vigorous enough to go right on in the same way for numerous more months. Why care for grammer as long as we are good? Let us all be happy, and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with. When a fellow says it ain't the money but the principle of the thing, it's the money. " ARTEMUS WARD ++++++++++++++ Early Ohio writers were for the most part. priggish idealists with a style that was stiff, overly sentimental and prone to using lessons in morals. Charles Farrar Browne, a tall, thin, red haired scribe with a long nose and drooping moustache, was a exception. He wrote under the pen name of Artemus Ward. In his columns and letters in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he gained a reputation as a humorist and a debunker whose pun-ridden, misspelled and wierd accounts made readers laugh, with his dead-pan comedy. [ An Early Will Rogers? ] Charles Farrar Browne was born in Waterdord, Maine, on April 26, 1836. His father operated a store in Waterford, engaged in farming and did some surveying. Charles attended local schools and, though he did well, he was more likely to be a prankster and a doodler than a serious student. When he was thirteen his father died and he soon entered the printing trade. He worked for a short time in Norway, Augusta, and Skowhegan, but soon got restless for newer vistas. After traveling throughout New England, he settled in Boston and began his writing career. Before long he was traveling again giving humerous lectures throughout the United States, adopting the name Artemus Ward and the character of an illiterate old showman. He also was a journeyman printer and sojourned for a while in Tiffin, Ohio, where as a reporter and compositor, he received the wages of four dollars a week. Going thence to Toledo, he contributed to the columns of " The Commercial " of that city. His reputation was gaining ground and through vigorously assailed in a series of articles in the " Toledo Blade." He treated his opponents with unfailing courtesy and humor. Charles Ward was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln and influenced Mark Twain's approach to satire. In 1858, at the age of twenty-four, his reputation soared as a reporter with his national character working for " The Cleveland Plaindealer, under the sobriquent of " Artemus Ward.," His best work at this period consisted in burlesque descriptions of prize-fights, races, spiritualistic seances, and political meetings. Towards the close of 1860, he accepted an engagement in New York with " Vanity Fair," a comic paper edited after the manner of the London " Punch " and ere long succeded the editor Charles G. Leland. In this some of his best contributions were given to the public. It was, however, as a lecturer that Artemus Ward acquired both fame abd fortune. His first appearance on the lecture platform in New York was in a travesty called " Babes in the Woods." His next hit was a lecture on " Sixty Minutes in Africa," given in Music Fund Hall, Philadelphia. In 1866 he sailed for England where success far beyond his expectations awaited him. His stay in London id spoken of as " an ovation to the genius of American wit." He became at once a great favorite with the Literary Club of London and his letters in " Punch " recalled the days of "Yellowplush." But sickness brought his career to an unexpected close in the seventh week of his engagement at Egyptian Hall in London, and his death occurred a few months later. When he felt the end was near, he asked his friend Arthur Sketchly to procure him the ministrations of a priest. So Sketchly took steps to carry out his friend's instructions. His remains were brought to his native land and laid to rest besides his father and brother in the cemetery at Waterford, Maine. The below is what appeared in the Cleveland PlainDealer, March 8, 1867; "Artemus Ward was a consummate humorist and represented a type distinctly American. His fun was a fountain that always bubbled, ministering naturally to the happiness of himself and others. In leading up to a joke whatever art was employed was carefully concealed, and the joke itself when it came was always a surprise but never an awkward or unwholesome one. The depth and strength of his character are revealed as well in the interest excited by his lectures and sayings as in the friendships he formed and retained to the end. His witt and humor will be sorely missed. Fare Well Dear Friend! " ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits continued in part 35.