The Complete Works of Artemus Ward (HTML edition)Ward, Artemus
General
The Complete Works of Artemus Ward (HTML edition)
Ward, Artemus
American wit and humor
"Half-a-dollar. We charge twenty-five cents for lookin at the landlord
and fifty cents for speakin to him. If you want supper, a boy will
show you to the dinin-room for twenty-five cents. Your room bein in the
tenth story, it will cost you a dollar to be shown up there."
"How much do you ax for a man breathin in this equinomikal tarvun?" sed
I.
"Ten cents a Breth," was his reply.
Washinton hotels is very reasonable in their charges. [N.B. This is
Sarkassum.]
I sent up my keerd to the Prints, and was immejitly ushered before him.
He received me kindly, and axed me to sit down.
"I hav cum to pay my respecks to you, Mister Napoleon, hopin I see you
hale and harty."
"I am quite well," he sed. "Air you well, sir?"
"Sound as a cuss!" I answerd.
He seemed to be pleased with my ways, and we entered into conversation
to onct.
"How's Lewis?" I axed, and he sed the Emperor was well. Eugeny was
likewise well, he sed. Then I axed him was Lewis a good provider? did
he cum home arly nites? did he perfoom her bedroom at a onseasonable
hour with gin and tanzy? Did he go to "the Lodge" on nites when there
wasn't any Lodge? did he often hav to go down town to meet a friend? did
he hav a extensiv acquaintance among poor young widders whose husbands
was in Californy? to all of which questions the Prints perlitely
replide, givin me to understand that the Emperor was behavin well.
"I ax these question, my royal duke and most noble hiness and imperials,
becaws I'm anxious to know how he stands as a man. I know he's smart.
He is cunnin, he is long-heded, he is deep--he is grate. But onless he
is good he'll come down with a crash one of these days and the Bonyparts
will be Bustid up agin. Bet yer life!"
"Air you a preacher, sir?" he inquired slitely sarkasticul.
"No, sir. But I bleeve in morality. I likewise bleeve in Meetin
Houses. Show me a place where there isn't any Meetin Houses and where
preachers is never seen, and I'll show you a place where old hats air
stuffed into broken winders, where the children air dirty and ragged,
where gates have no hinges, where the wimin are slipshod, and where
maps of the devil's "wild land" air painted upon men's shirt bosums with
tobacco-jooce! That's what I'll show you. Let us consider what the
preachers do for us before we aboose 'em."
He sed he didn't mean to aboose the clergy. Not at all, and he was
happy to see that I was interested in the Bonypart family.
"It's a grate family," sed I. "But they scooped the old man in."
"How, Sir?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account