The Complete Works of Artemus Ward (HTML edition) — John Shaqi
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
The store I must not forget the store. It is an object of great
interest to me. I usually encounter there, on sunny afternoons, an
old Revolutionary soldier. You may possibly have read about "Another
Revolutionary Soldier gone," but this is one who hasn't gone, and,
moreover, one who doesn't manifest the slightest intention of going. He
distinctly remembers Washington, of course; they all do; but what I
wish to call special attention to, is the fact that this Revolutionary
soldier is one hundred years old, that his eyes are so good that he can
read fine print without spectacles--he never used them, by the way and
his mind is perfectly clear. He is a little shaky in one of his legs,
but otherwise he is as active as most men of forty-five, and his general
health is excellent. He uses no tobacco, but for the last twenty years
he has drunk one glass of liquor every day no more, no less. He says
he must have his tod. I had begun to have lurking suspicions about
this Revolutionary soldier business, but here is an original Jacobs.
But because a man can drink a glass of liquor a day, and live to be a
hundred years old, my young readers must not infer that by drinking two
glasses of liquor a day a man can live to be two hundred. "Which, I
meanter say, it doesn't foller," as Joseph Gargery might observe.
This store, in which may constantly be found calico and nails, and
fish, and tobacco in kegs, and snuff in bladders, is a venerable
establishment. As long ago as 1814 it was an institution. The county
troops, on their way to the defence of Portland, then menaced by British
ships-of-war, were drawn up in front of this very store, and treated at
the town's expense. Citizens will tell you how the clergyman refused
to pray for the troops, because he considered the war an unholy one; and
how a somewhat eccentric person, of dissolute habits, volunteered his
services, stating that he once had an uncle who was a deacon, and he
thought he could make a tolerable prayer, although it was rather out
of his line; and how he prayed so long and absurdly that the Colonel
ordered him under arrest, but that even while soldiers stood over him
with gleaming bayonets, the reckless being sang a preposterous song
about his grandmother's spotted calf, with its Ri-fol-lol-tiddery-i-do;
after which he howled dismally.
And speaking of the store, reminds me of a little story. The author
of "several successful comedies" has been among us, and the store was
anxious to know who the stranger was. And therefore the store asked
him.
"What do you follow, sir?" respectfully inquired the tradesman.
"I occasionally write for the stage, sir."
"Oh!" returned the tradesman, in a confused manner.
"He means," said an honest villager, with a desire to help the puzzled
tradesman out, "he means that he writes the handbills for the stage
drivers!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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