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Show LIKED WIT OF ARTEMUS WARD Londoners for a Wonder Appreciated Work of Great American Humorist. On the occasion of Artemus Ward's professional visit to London, which occurred oc-curred not long before his death, J. E. Preston Muddock says In his book, "Pages from an Adventurous Life," that the American humorist's advertisements adver-tisements of his "show" were as full of funny surprises as the lectures themselves. One that tickled the general gen-eral public was this: Artemus Ward Delivered Lectures Before All the Crowned Heads of Europe Eu-rope Ever Thought of Delivering Deliver-ing Lectures. And an excerpt from his lecture on "Drawing," Is quoted by Mr. Muddock as a particularly delightful bit. ."I haven't distinguished myself as an artist," Ward said, in his inimitable way, "but have always been mixed up in art. I have an uncle who takes photographs in his sane moments, and I have a servant who takes everything every-thing he can lay his hands on at any moment. "At a very tender age I could draw on wood. When a mere child I once drew a small cart-load of raw turnips over a wooden bridge. It was a raw morning. The people of the village recognized me. They said it was a raw-turnip drawing. That shows how faithfully I had copied nature. I drew their attention to it, so you see there was a lot of drawing in it. "The villagers, with wonderful discernment dis-cernment peculiar to villagers, said 1 had a future before me. As I was walking backward when I made my drawing I replied that I thought that my future must be behind me." |