The Complete Works of Artemus Ward — Part 4: To California and ReturnWard, Artemus
General
The Complete Works of Artemus Ward — Part 4: To California and Return
Ward, Artemus
American wit and humor
I have been looking at Zion all day, and my feet are sore and my
legs are weary. I go back to the Salt Lake House and have a talk
with landlord Townsend about the State of Maine. He came from that
bleak region, having skinned his infantile eyes in York county. He
was at Nauvoo, and was forced to sell his entire property there for
50 dollars. He has thrived in Utah, however, and is much thought
of by the Church. He is an Elder, and preaches occasionally. He
has only two wives. I hear lately that he has sold his property
for 25,000 dollars to Brigham Young, and gone to England to make
converts. How impressive he may be as an expounder of the Mormon
gospel, I don't know. His beefsteaks and chicken-pies, however,
were first-rate. James and I talk about Maine, and cordially agree
that so far as pine boards and horse-mackerel are concerned, it is
equalled by few and excelled by none. There is no place like home,
as Clara, the Maid of Milan, very justly observes; and while J.
Townsend would be unhappy in Maine, his heart evidently beats back
there now and then.
I heard the love of home oddly illustrated in Oregon, one night, in
a country bar-room. Some well-dressed men, in a state of strong
drink, were boasting of their respective places of nativity.
"I," said one, "was born in Mississippi, where the sun ever shines
and the magnolias bloom all the happy year round."
"And I," said another, "was born in Kentucky--Kentucky, the home of
impassioned oratory: the home of Clay, the State of splendid
women, of gallant men!"
"And I," said another, "was born in Virginia, the home of
Washington: the birthplace of statesmen: the State of chivalric
deeds and noble hospitality!"
"And I," said a yellow-haired and sallow-faced man, who was not of
this party at all, and who had been quietly smoking a short black
pipe by the fire during their magnificent conversation--"and I was
born in the garden-spot of America."
"Where is that?" they said.
"SKEOUHEGAN, MAINE!" he replied; "kin I sell you a razor strop?"
4.11. "I AM HERE."
There is no mistake about that, and there is a good prospect of my
staying here for some time to come. The snow is deep on the
ground, and more is falling.
The Doctor looks glum, and speaks of his ill-starred countryman, of
Sir. J. Franklin, who went to the Arctic once too much.
A good thing happened down here the other day, said a miner from
New Hampshire to me. "A man of Boston dressin' went through there,
and at one of the stations there wasn't any mules. Says the man
who was fixed out to kill in his Boston dressin', 'Where's them
mules?' Says the driver, 'Them mules is into the sage brush. You
go catch 'em--that's wot YOU do.' Says the man of Boston dressin',
'Oh no!' Says the driver! 'Oh, yes!' and he took his long
coach-whip and licked the man of Boston dressin' till he went and
caught them mules. How does that strike you for a joke?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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