The Complete Works of Artemus Ward — Part 3: Stories and RomancesWard, Artemus
General
The Complete Works of Artemus Ward — Part 3: Stories and Romances
Ward, Artemus
American wit and humor
"Nary!" cried Mabel, her eyes flashing warm fire,--"nary. None
but the Brave deserve the Sanitary Fair! A man who will desert
his country in its hour of trial would drop Faro checks into the
Contribution Box on Sunday. I hain't got time to tarry--I hain't
got time to stay!--but here's a gift at parting: a White
Feather: wear it in your hat!" and She was Gone from his gaze,
like a beautiful dream.
Stung with remorse and mosquitoes, this miserable young man, in a
fit of frenzy, unsheathed his glittering dry-goods scissors, cut
off four yards (good measure) of the Canada Line, and hanged
himself on a Willow Tree. Requiescat in Tape. His stick drifted
to My Country, 'tis of thee! And may be seen, in connection with
many others, on the stage of any New York theatre every night.
The Canadians won't have any line pretty soon. The skedaddlers
will steal it. Then the Canadians won't know whether they're in
the United States or not, in which case they may be drafted.
Mabel married a Brigadier-General, and is happy.
3.5. A ROMANCE--ONLY A MECHANIC.
In a sumptuously furnished parlor in Fifth Avenue, New York, sat
a proud and haughty belle. Her name was Isabel Sawtelle. Her
father was a millionaire, and his ships, richly laden, ploughed
many a sea.
By the side of Isabel Sawtelle sat a young man with a clear,
beautiful eye, and a massive brow.
"I must go," he sed, "the foreman will wonder at my absence."
"The FOREMAN?" asked Isabel in a tone of surprise.
"Yes, the foreman of the shop where I work."
"Foreman--shop--WORK! What! do YOU work."
"Aye, Miss Sawtelle! I am a cooper!" and his eyes flashed with
honest pride.
"What's that?" she asked; "it is something about barrels, isn't
it!"
"It is!" he said, with a flashing nostril. "And hogsheads."
"Then go!" she said in a tone of disdain--"go AWAY!"
"Ha!" he cried, "you spurn me, then, because I am a mechanic.
Well, be it so! though the time will come, Isabel Sawtelle," he
added, and nothing could exceed his looks at this moment--"when
you will bitterly remember the cooper you now so cruelly cast
off? FAREWELL!"
. . . .
Years rolled on. Isabel Sawtelle married a miserable aristocrat,
who recently died of delirium tremens. Her father failed, and is
now a raving maniac, and wants to bite little children. All her
brothers (except one) were sent to the penitentiary for burglary,
and her mother peddles clams that are stolen for her by little
George, her only son that has his freedom. Isabel's sister
Bianca rides an immoral spotted horse in the circus, HER husband
having long since been hanged for murdering his own uncle on his
mother's side. Thus we see that it is always best to marry a
mechanic.
3.6. ROBERTO THE ROVER:--A TALE OF SEA AND SHORE.
CHAPTER I.--FRANCE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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