The Complete Works of Artemus Ward — Part 6: Artemus Ward's PanoramaWard, Artemus
General
The Complete Works of Artemus Ward — Part 6: Artemus Ward's Panorama
Ward, Artemus
American wit and humor
(Picture of) Echo Canyon.
The wild snowstorms have left us--and we have thrown our
wolf-skin overcoats aside. Certain tribes of far-western
Indians bury their distinguished dead by placing them high
in air and covering them with valuable furs--that is a very
fair representation of these mid-air tombs. Those animals
are horses--I know they are--because my artist says so. I
had the picture two years before I discovered the fact.--The
artist came to me about six months ago--and said--"It is
useless to disguise it from you any longer--they are
horses."
(Picture of) A more cheerful view of the Desert.
It was while crossing this desert that I was surrounded by a
band of Ute Indians. They were splendidly mounted--they
were dressed in beaver-skins--and they were armed with
rifles--knives--and pistols.
(Picture of) Our Encounter with the Indians.
What could I do?--What could a poor old orphan do? I'm a
brave man.--The day before the Battle of Bull's Run I stood
in the highway while the bullets--those dreadful messengers
of death--were passing all around me thickly--IN WAGONS--on
their way to the battle-field. (This was the great joke of
Artemus Ward's first lecture, "The Babes in the Wood." He
never omitted it in any of his lectures, nor did it lose its
power to create laughter by repetition. The audiences at
the Egyptian Hall, London, laughed as immoderately at it, as
did those of Irving Hall, New York, or of the Tremont Temple
in Boston.) But there were too many of these Injuns--there
were forty of them--and only one of me--and so I said--
"Great Chief--I surrender." His name was Wocky-bocky.
He dismounted--and approached me. I saw his tomahawk
glisten in the morning sunlight. Fire was in his eye.
Wocky-bocky came very close to me and seized me by the hair
of my head. He mingled his swarthy fingers with my golden
tresses--and he rubbed his dreadful Thomashawk across my
lily-white face. He said--
"Torsha arrah darrah mishky bookshean!"
I told him he was right.
Wocky-bocky again rubbed his tomahawk across my face, and
said--"Wink-ho--loo-boo!"
Says I--"Mr. Wocky-bocky"--says I--"Wocky--I have thought so
for years--and so's all our family."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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