Artemus Ward, the forgotten influence of the “genial

showman’s”

Mormon lecture and writings

on public opinion of Mormons in America and Great Britain

By Joel J. Campbell and Kris Boyle

Presented at the Mormon History Association Conference

San Antonio, Texas

June 7, 2014

Artemus Ward, the forgotten influence of the “genialshowman’s” Mormon lecture

on public opinion of Mormons in America and Great Britain

By Joel J. Campbell and Kris Boyle

AbstractLong before “Book of Mormon” musical performances in London and New York drew large crowds making fun of Mormons, there was “Artemus Ward Among the Mormons,” a dramatic lecture presented in those same cities in 1864 and 1866.

Artemus Ward, aka Charles Farrar Browne, (1834-1867), was a household name in much of the United States during the Civil War period into the turn of the 20th Century because of his frequently reprinted newspaper columns filled with gross misspellings and misused words. President Abraham Lincoln was a noted fan of Ward’s work, which provided a humorous break from the troubles of war.

For Mormonism, this famous “genial showman” had much to do with setting the stage of how Americans and Britons viewed thereligion and its followers. During his travels through the western United States, he performed in Salt Lake City, but became ill and was nursed back to health during a one-month stay in Utah. Because of his Mormon show and earlier touring performances, many have dubbed Ward the world’s first stand-upcomic or the “father of American humor.”

In England, researchers say Ward’s homespun style and deadpan delivery helped turn Britain’s distaste for American literature into best-selling articles published in the late 1800s in British books, magazines and as jokes packed inside popular Christmas crackers. Researchers have found Ward likelyserved as an inspiration to Mark Twain’s humorous assaults on Mormons as well as connections to other humorists of the time.

This paper will examine Ward’s writing about Mormons, before and after his near-death stay in Salt Lake City, and how Latter-day Saint theology and culture became “material” for his comedy. It will also discuss his famous performance of “Artemus Ward Among the Mormons” in New York City, across the United States and in London. Lastly, it will examine Ward’s influence on British and American thought about Mormonism and public opinion during his London performances and after his death.

This paper draws on many English and American newspapers andperiodicals, now digitized and rarely cited in pervious research, as a richer and more in-depth exploration of the impact of Artemus Ward’s work on public perception of Mormons in the United States and Great Britain.

Introduction

Long before Book of Mormon musical opened in New York in

2011 and London in 2013 and drew large crowds while making fun

of Mormons, there was Artemus Ward Among the Mormons. It was a

dramatic lecture presented in those same cities in 1864 and

1866 and toured across the Midwest, Canada and the American

South before opening in London.

Humorist Artemus Ward, aka Charles Farrar Browne,

(1834-167), was a household name in much of the United

States during the Civil War era because of his frequently

reprinted newspaper columns filled with gross misspellings

and misused words. Ward was credited as author of at least

five books, although some were compilations of earlier

writings from columns in magazines, newspapers, and edited

transcriptions of his “lectures.” Books containing Ward’s

work, written by Ward and his agent Edward P. Hingston,

include the following:

Artemus Ward; His Book, 1862.Artemus Ward; His Travels, 1865Artemus Ward in London, 1867Artemus Ward’s Lecture, 1869The Genial Showman, 1870

Many have dubbed Ward the world’s first stand-up comic

and Mark Twain said he was America’s greatest humorist.1

Ward was a master of deadpan. His humor emerged at a time

when Americans needed a good laugh in the face of a tragic

Civil War, according to researcher Jennifer Greenhill.

Abraham Lincoln was often taken to task by the press and

criticized by his cabinet for indulging in humor. But

Lincoln said it was humor that helped him survive the terror

of war. In fact, before proposing the Emancipation

Proclamation, Lincoln read one of Ward’s pieces to his

cabinet. 2

Artemus also had a knack for branding his work with

comedy. He advertised his shows under the slogan “Artemus

Ward will speak a piece,” often displayed at the bottom of a

large blank poster. Ward was the master of “goaks” or jokes,

but was one of the worst (intentional) spellers of his age.

He also trademarked the signature “Yours trooly, A.Ward,”

which appears in many of his books. In his London lecture,

he also appropriated a short buggy whip to use as a

lecturer’s baton. He also gained the name the “genial

showman” for personality.

Browne started his career as a printer after the

untimely death of his father. He eventually turned his craft

of setting type at print shops to reporting and writing, a

common career pairing of the time. He was eventually hired

on at the Cleveland Plain Dealer where he became a local news

editor. The paper soon discovered that his humor ous takes

on news summaries drew an audience. He decided to turn his

comedic writing into an invented alter ego, Artemus Ward.

The character was pictured as a rotund philosopher and

caretaker of a “wax figger show.” Most attribute the nom de

plume to a Revolutionary War general. After working in

Cleveland, he left for Vanity Fair magazine in 1860 and

resigned from the magazine in 1862 to pursue his book

publishing and lecture career.3

Ward, who looked nothing like the caricature of his

alter ego in book drawings, corrupted the popular lecture

form of the day for comedic effect. He also turned another

institution of the time -- the large illustrated panorama of

moving pictures – on its head. One biographer wrote the

lecture simply titled Artemus Ward Among the Mormons was indeed a

burlesque panorama. And Browne also burlesqued the promotional

tactics of the panoramists and popular lectures. Here’s an

example.

He advertised his show in New York by marching a group of Irishmen down Broadway in wild Indian costumes with large white umbrellas letter “Artemus Ward – His Indians – Dodworth Hall.” His printed program was a parody of the pretentious programs of the panoramists, and it included testimonials and recommendations, such as: Artemus Ward delivered Lectures before

ALL THE CROWNED HEADS OF EUROPEever thought of delivering lectures4

Some, not understanding his sarcasm and satire, thought his

work a farce while others labeled it as genius. Ward’s

approach was so successful that it was the inspiration for

Mark Twain’s homespun lecture style and his tendency to poke

fun at Mormons. Because of Twain’s longevity, his work is

often cited as the essence of American literature, but

scholars have noted that Ward served as Twain’s muse and model

in many ways.5 Twain even produced a show paying homage to

Ward. Ironically, most of Ward’s works are out of print while

Twain enjoys iconic status and continued exposure among

Americans.

For Mormons, Ward has been remembered with disdain and some

fondness. BYU professor Richard Cracroft wrote a polemic

examination of Twain’s and Ward’s treatment of Mormons. He

said more researchers’ attention should be paid to how the two

knowingly perpetuated misunderstood doctrines of the oft-

maligned Church and how “their portraits give into late

nineteenth century American and British attitudes and

misconceptions about the culture and doctrines of the Latter-

day Saints.”6

Another perspective takes a more realistic approach and

links such stereotypes of the past to effectiveness of modern-

day Mormon image missionary work. Writing in 1972 in the the

LDS Church magazine New Era, Lambert and Cracroft wrote this:

This image, alternating with an image shaped by humorousjabs at polygamy, Brigham Young, and “the Destroying Angels,” made the Mormon a sensational, if seldom very literary, figure. But the sad truth is that the influence of this kind of image was and is perhaps more far-reaching than we might suspect. One can’t help but wonder what effect the reading of such stuff might have had on the presidents and senators and governors and militia men—and their wives—who played a central role inthe shaping of Church history—or the effect that such stuff has had, and continues to have, on that factory worker in Detroit and that steel worker in Linz, Austria, who say through tight lips and flinty smile on closing the door on today’s missionaries, “No thanks. You see, I’ve read all about you!”7

1.     Ward’s writing about Mormons, before and after his near-death stay in Salt Lake City, and how Latter-day Saint theology and culture became “material” for his comedy.

It was no secret that Artemus was fascinated by the

Mormons. “The Mormons and Brigham Young always excited his

fancy; he never comes within sight of the Salt Lake City, or

any of its inhabitants, without cutting an involuntary

caper.” 8 It show also be noted that Ward targeted other

groups for his humor including Quakers, Shakers and African

Americans.

His most disparaging, yet fictitious, account of the

Mormons was published in Vanity Fair in 1860. In the piece,

Artemus details a “private meeting” he had with Brigham

Young. Ward painted Young as a man who was eager to boast

that he had 80 wives and that it took six weeks to kiss all

his wives, but yet admitted that married life was a burden.

9 Ward claims Young told him, “sumtimes I wish Id re-maned

single” and that Young said his wives don’t give him a

minute’s peace.10 Ward said Young’s wives constantly fight

with each other and will “set the house in an uproar” if he

doesn’t buy them whatever they want. Whenever Young is

cranky, his wives shut him up in a dark closet. Ward also

claimed that on occasion, when Young goes swimming at the

local lake, his wives will steal all his clothes from the

banks, requiring him to “sneek home by a circuitous rowt,

dressed in the Skander-lus stile of the Greek Slaiv.”11

In this exaggerated story, Ward was just as

disparaging of the other Mormons in Salt Lake City. He talks

of being surrounded by a crowd of Mormons wanting to attend

one of his shows for free. According to Ward, they claimed

to have received revelations “biddin us go into A Ward’s

Show without payin’ nuthin.”12 Ward said several women in

the group tried to convince him to become a Mormon so he

could have several wives sealed to him. Ward was as “mad as

I cood be at thare infernal noncents” and fled the area as

soon as he could. He referred to Salt Lake City as a second

Sodom and Gomorrah, “inhabited by as theavin and

onprincipuld a set of retchis as ever drew Breth in eny spot

on the globe.”13

So it makes sense why his friends tried to persuade

Ward against visiting Salt Lake City in 1864. There were all

kinds of weird tales of Mormon “atrocities” and “murderous

deeds” of the Danites or the “Destroying Angels” circulating

around the country and they worried that the Danites would

get Artemus. 14 He was warned by another acquaintance, who

was a captain in the California Calvary staying in Utah,

that “The people in this place will try to be very friendly

with you. They will let you see the best side of every

thing. If you believe all they tell you, you will go away

without knowing any thing about them.”15 However, Ward

eventually paid a visit to the Mormons, spending an entire

month in Salt Lake City, from January 10 to February 10.

As they made their way from California to Utah, Ward

and his traveling companions had to travel down slopes of

“precipitous” mountains, in the dark and snow. On one

occasion they were actually attacked by a “horde of famished

wolves.” They had to “beat the beasts off with the butt end

of their horse-pistols.” After that they had to leave their

sled and wade for four miles in knee-deep snow. 16 At one

point, they were stopped by Indians, not far from Salt Lake

City, and they were only released through the influence of

Brigham Young.

Because he has been so critical of Young and the other

Mormons, Artemus shared some of those same fears expressed

by his friends. One night, as he retired to an inn outside

the city, he felt quite certain that he was “now in the

absolute power of the most unscrupulous man in America, whom

he happened to have grossly insulted,” and that he was

expecting to have his “swan-like throat cut by the Danites.”

However, much to his surprise, Ward was cordially

welcomed to the city by Young and the Mormon residents.17

One of his first meetings was with one of Brigham’s then

confidant Elder T.B. Stenhouse, who told Ward that Young had

every book written about him. “You ought not to have made

ridicule of our church,” he told Ward, referring to the

article in Vanity Fair. Stenhouse also read aloud several

passages that he felt were most hurtful, and told Ward that

it was a little strong, seeing that Ward had never been to

Salt Lake City or even seen the Mormon people.18

Ward countered that he wrote the article under pressure

and admitted he didn’t know much about the Mormons,

apologizing if he had caused any harm. He also hoped that

they would allow him to lecture among them so that he could

see real Mormon life.

His stay with the Mormons would be longer than he would

have ever expected. The night after Ward had his real visit

with Young, he came down with a severe case of the “mountain

fever,” a variation of typhoid fever that nearly took his

life. 19 As a result, he was able to experience first-hand

true Mormon hospitality. The “theievin’ and unprincipled

retches” that he lambasted in his article now “vied with

each other to do him service.” 20 They nursed him patiently,

providing to his every need. Brigham Young provided Artemus

with his own doctor and sent him gifts of wine and cheese

and the Relief Society sisters would comfort Artemus with

music. During his illness, Ward wrote in a letter to Mark

Twain, “the saints have been wonderfully kind to me. I could

not have been better or more tenderly nursed at home. God

bless them all.” 21

A few weeks later, after he recovered sufficiently,

Artemus was finally able to perform in front of a Mormon

audience in the “attractive, extremely well-appointed Salt

Lake Theatre.”

At the invitation to appear in the theater, it appears

that either Ward or his agent Edward P. Hingston was at work

in self promotion and tall tales, writing as if a local

reporter. In the Cleveland Daily Leader, the correspondent

wrote:

Artemus Ward – the man who makes ‘goaks’ is out here lecturing and exciting considerable stir among our saintly population. . . Artemus has become a great friend of President Brigham Young, but his conduct toward the president is giving rise to much scandal. Brigham, as you know, has many wives and with any number of children, and the story – I do not pretend tosay how true it is, I do not pretend to say -- is to effect is that Artemus in visiting the harem of the Prophet has beguiled the affections of his fairest daughter. He may take her to Chicago, and if so, you will have a sight of one of our chief Mormon beauties.

About the show, Ward noted that the Mormons had some

odd forms of payment which they presented at the front door,

including one who paid for admission with five pounds of

honey, while another brought a wolf skin. One man tried to

pay with a little dog – a cross between a Scottish terrier

and Welch rabbit – while another presented a German-silver

coffin plate. “Both were very properly declined by my

agent,” Ward said, though he did let many of the saints in

for free. 22 He presented The Babes in the Woods, one of his

more popular programs, which was well received. The large

audience laughed and applauded heartily as Brigham Young sat

watching from his rocking chair.23

An account penned by New York Atlas correspondent E.P.H.

described what he found when he went to see Ward’s

performance at the Salt Lake Theatre. He said he arrived at

the theater to find that only “standing room only” was

available and shared a more exaggerated account of the the

box office filled with a “heterogeneous collection of dead

fowls, suckling pigs, eggs, parcels of preserved peaches,

gloves, hose, new coffee pots, gridirons, old bottles, boots

and pickaxes, all of which according to the custom of the

country had been accepted as currency, entitling the

bringers of the same to admission.” He explained that

greenbacks were scare in Salt Lake City and that goods were

accepted as payment.

E.P.H. described a theater that would “compare with any

in New York City” and there were 3,000 people within its

walls. E.P.H. noted that grandeur of the theater was

evidence of Young “enriching himself at a rapid rate.” He

noted that the Gentile audience was convulsed in laughter by

the middle of Ward’s performance of Babes in the Woods while

the Mormons seem either too awed or stupid to understand

Ward’s humor enough to laugh at his jokes. Brigham Young was

reported to have broken the ice by waving a handkerchief

that signaled his approval for his wives and the Mormon

audience to laugh.

The correspondent said that a proscenium box right of

the stage was the “corral” where Brigham Young and his wives

sat. He said he counted 139 wives include blondes and

brunettes. Some had dark features and there was all matter

of noses including Greek, Roman, snub and celestial ones. He

also counted “50 or 60 wives” in Heber C. Kimball’s party

and Orson Hyde’s family occupied seven benches. At the end

of the performance and before Ward left the stage, the

correspondent wrote that Brigham Young and his wives,

walking onto the stage in pairs, inspected Artemus. The

party departed to 30 odd sleighs and the crowd joined in the

chorus of ‘God Bless Brigham Young.’ “

“I pitied Artemus Ward having to stand the gaze of

those 100 wives and would have given something to know his

own private thoughts on the subject,” E.P.H. wrote.24

It clear the “journalist” E.P.H. was Edward P. Hingston

who was also Ward’s agent and travelling mate. It is

difficult to know where facts ended and puffery, imagination

and exaggeration began in the Atlas account because of the

Hingston’s motivation to promote Ward.

It is clear, that Hington’s and Artemus’ Mormon hosts

were ready to label Hingston “the greatest liar in America”

because of the Atlas account. In an April 20, 1864 editorial,

the Mormon church-owned Deseret News lambasted Hingston. The

News praised Ward for his sincerity as a gentleman, but the

News said it wished to “never be afflicted with the sight of

(Hingston)” again.25

“(Hingston) has written for the New York Atlas an account

of the visit to the Theatre in Salt Lake City during the

lecture of Artemus Ward, professing, of course, no

relationship with the lecturer, which is such a picture of

misrepresentation and so over (text unreadable) and

interwoven with fabrications that we believe the very lowest

class of our gentiles are ashamed of it,” the Deseret News

editorial said.26

After recovering from his fever, Artemus left Salt Lake

City feeling that Brigham Young was a “bold, bad man, but ….

Also a man of extraordinary administrative ability,” who had

treated him with “marked kindness.” 27 While it was

considered a “terribly trying” trip for Ward, it also proved

to be “one of the greatest bits of good fortune. His

enforced stay among the Mormons gave him an opportunity to

study the inside history and working of their institution.”

According to one observer, this experience provided Ward

with something that he had so long desired – the subject of

an illustrated lecture. 28

2.     His famous performance of Artemus Ward Among the Mormons inNew York City, across the United States and in London.

Ward returned from the West in April 1864 to New York

after two months travelling from Utah. Soon thereafter, he

returned to his boyhood home in Waterford, Maine, because of

the death of his brother Cyrus. By now he was turning the

material he had collected in Salt Lake City into an

illustrated lecture. Based on pictures obtained in Salt Lake

City and other tales from the West, Ward commissioned a

“panorama,” a popular medium of the time to illustrate

lectures. A panorama is a serious of large painted scenes

rolled from one roller to another in front of an audience.

29

It also appears that Ward began to immediately dabble

in his Mormon experience for comedic material. He penned a

short novelette for the Portland, Maine, newspaper in June

1864. In Gloverson, the Mormon, he recounts the goodbye

expressions of a Mormon man to his more than thirteen

wives.30

Six months after he left Utah, his “lecture,” with its

newly minted panorama, opened in New York City’s Dodworth

Hall, then listed at 806 Broadway, in October 1864 to rave

reviews. The lecture, which changed little over time in the

United States and England, include the following sections

coordinated with larger-than-life or “colossal” panorama

paintings and commentary. The following is compilation of

the both the short and long descriptions of each scene of

the panoramic lecture from the Dodworth Hall program.

1. Introductory. Next comes a jocund and discursive preamble, calculated to show what a good education the Lecturer has.

2. The Steamer Ariel, en route. View the first as a sea-view. – Ariel navigation. – Normal school of whales in the distance. – Isthmus of Panama. – Interesting interview with Old Panama himself, who makes all the hats. Old Pan, is a likely sort of man.

3. San Francisco. – City with a vigilant government. – Miners allowed to vote. Old inhabitants so rich thatthey have legs with golden calves on them.

4. The Washoe Silver Region. Town in the Silver region.– Good quarters to be found there. – Playful population, home of high-low-jack and homicide. Silver lying around loose. – Thefts of it termed sliver-guilt.

5. The Plains in Winter. – A wild Moor, like Othello.—Mountains in the distance forty thousand miles abovethe level of the highest sea—If you don’t believe this you can go there and measure them yourself.

6. The City of Saints. Mormondom, sometimes called the City of the Plains, but wrongly; the are quite pretty.—View of Old Poly Gamy’s house.

7. A Mormon Hotel. The Lake Hotel. – Stage just come infrom its overland route and retreat from the Indians.—Temperance house. –No bar nearer than Salt

Lake sand-bars.—Miners in shirts like Artemus Ward his Programme—they are read and will wash.

8. Brigham Young’s Theater. Mormon Theater, where Artemus Ward lectured.—Mormons like theatricals and had rather go to the playhouse than to the workhouse, an time.—Private boxes reserved for the ears of Brigham Young’s wives.

9. The Council House. The Territorial State House.—Seatof the Legislature. About as fair a collection as that at Albany.—“and we can’t say no fairer than that.”

10. The House of Brigham Young. Residence of Brigham Young and his wives.—Two hundred souls with but a single thought. Two hundred hearts that beat as one.

11. Heber C. Kimball’s Seraglio. House of the Queens of Heber.—No relatives of the Queen of Sheba.—They are a nice gang of darlings.

12. The Mormon House of Worship. Mormon Tabernacle, where the men espouse Mormonism and the women espouse Brother Brigham and his Elders as spiritual Physicians, convicted of bad doct’rin.

13. Foundations of a New Temple. Beginning of a healthy little job.—Temple to enclose all outdoors, and be pave with gold at a premium.

14. Architect’s view of the temple when finished. Mormon idea of a meetinghouse.—N.B. It will be bigger, probably than Dodworth Hall.—One of the figures in the foreground is intended for Heber C. Kimball.—You can see, by the expression of his back,that he is thinking what a great man Joseph Smith was.

15. The Great Dead Sea of the Desert. The Great Salt Lake. – Water actually thick with salt.—Too saline to sail in.—Mariners rocked on the bosom of this deep with rock salt.—The water isn’t very good to drink.

16. The House of Mystery. The House where the Mormons are initiated.—Very secret and mysterious ceremonies.—Anybody can easily find out all about

them though, by going out there and becoming a Mormon.

17. The Canon (Canyon), Echo Canon (Canyon).—A rough bluff sort of affair.—Great Echo.—When Artemus Ward went through, he heard the echoes of some things theIndians said there about four years and a half ago.

18. Mid-Air Sepulture. The Plains again, with some noble savages, both in the live and dead state.—The dead one on the high shelf was killed in a Fratricidal Struggle.—They are always having Fratricidal Struggles out in that line of country.—It would be a good place for an enterprising coronerto locate.

19. A nice family party at Brigham Young’s. Brigham Young surrounded by his wives. These ladies are simply too numerous to mention.31

The lecture’s tickets, program and performance was

filled with one liners aimed at a quick laugh about Mormons.

Along with his satire, he was at times generous in the his

lecture about the “Saints.” Here are excerpts from the

London Egyptian Hall performance as recorded in the book

Artemus Ward’s Lecture.

PolygamyThis wife system they call plurality – the world calls it polygamy. That at its best it is an accursed thing –I need not of course inform you – but you will bear in mind that I am here as a rather cheerful reporter or what I saw in Utah – and I fancy it isn’t at all necessary for me to grow virtuously indignant over something we all know is hideously wrong.32

Brigham Young’s wivesBrigham Young has two hundred wives. Just think of that! Oblige me by thinking of that. That is – he has eighty actual wives, and he is spiritually married to one hundred and twenty more…..So we may say he has two hundred wives. He loves not wisely – but two hundred well. He is dreadfully married. He’s the most married man I ever saw in my life. I saw his mother-in-law while I was there. I can’t exactly tell you how many there is of her – but it’s a good deal. It strikes me that one mother-in-law is about enough to have in a family – unless you are very fond of excitement.33

Women and educationYou will be surprised to hear – I was amazed to see – that among the Mormon women are some few persons of education – of positive cultivation. As a class the Mormons are not an educated people – but they are by nomeans the community of ignoramuses so may writer have told us they were.34

Utah LegislatureThe East Side of Main Street – Salt Lake City – with a view of the Council Building. – The legislature of Utahmeets there. It is like all legislative bodies. They meet this winter to repeal the laws which they met and made last winter – and they will meet next winter to repeal the laws which they met and made this winter.35

The Great Salt LakeI know of now greater curiosity than this inland sea ofthick brine. It is eighty miles wide and one hundred and thirty miles long…. These are the fact – susceptible of the clearest possible proof. They tell one story about this lake – however – that I have my doubts about. They say a Mormon farmer drove forty headof cattle in there once – and they came out first-rate pickled beef.36

Artemus’ earlier life as a printer, journalist, book

author, and comic columnist served him well as newspapers

across the country continued to promote Ward’s work and then

his show. Even as the New York show was opening, he was able

to get notices (and some puffery) like this across the

continent in California.

“Artemus Ward has engaged Dodworth Hall for the season.

It is said he has a ‘sure thing’ in this city alone, from

his lecture on Salt Lake City and the Mormons. No

performances given by a single individual has ever been so

popular. Hundreds go away nightly unable to secure seats.”37

Initial press reviews were complimentary. This one the New York Herald said:

We have been accustomed to consider the Mormons and Mormonism as a somewhat grave and important question, inasmuch as succession and rebellion had their birth inMormon territory, but to see Mormonism in a much livelier and more amusing shape one must hear Artemus Ward’s experiences. . . In short, in the entertainment of Mr. Artemus Ward we have Mormonism in caricature andon canvas; but the discourse is not the less instructive that the information is clothed in the garment of fun.38

Along the way, Ward decided the panorama was too

perfectly painted and had it repainted (with some obvious

errors for comic effect) and downsized to fit better in

theaters and halls, both large and small, as he crisscrossed

the United States. Between 1864 and 1865, Ward took his show

on a breakneck “farewell” or “Adoo (sic)” tour starting in

New York and on the road to the Midwest, up to Canada and

to the American South. The tour was billed as a preview to

Artemus’ London show.

An advertisement for the show in Washington, D.C.

contains Ward’s characteristic humor as he promotes the

panoramic views of the “moonlit waters of the Great Salt

Lake and the Illuminated Mormon Temple” as two very fine

things. It continues, “He may be mistaken. He leaves this

matter, as most things pertaining to himself, to the public.

He can afford to do this because for the past six years the

public has extended a very liberal patronage to all his

enterprises.”39

By September 1865, he lectures we also supplemented by

the book, Artemus Ward, His Travels. The book dedicates the last

69 pages of the 231-page work to his visit to the Mormons.

The last 16-page chapter is a reprint of Joseph Smith’s

revelation about plural marriage received at Nauvoo on July

12, 1843, similar to the LDS Church’s Doctrine and Covenants

Section 132. 40 There is evidence to suggest that these

books were sold at performances.41

After a performance in March 1865 in Cincinnati, the

Cincinnati Enquirer proclaimed, “ Artemus is great, and as a

prophet of the Mormon persuasion, he is, as we have before

pronounced him, irrepressible. We do not know how Artemus

relished his sojourn among the Mormons, but he recounts it

with such gusto, we are irresistibly led to the impression

that he liked it.”42

On June 2, 1865, he departed for London. Already known

for his humorous columns printed in English newspapers, Ward

quickly found a home among the British literati, as he done

among the New York Bohemians, including writing for the

popular English Punch magazine. He was inducted into the

Savage Club, considered the preeminent club for England’s

men of letters.

One literary reviewer said this after Ward’s death in

England, “Int his country it was, among the classes of

literary men, that the young American was first recognized

as a true genius. His reception by such men in London was

remarkable. It was due, in the first place, entirely to its

intrinsic merits, and only afterward was it enhanced and

extended by the man’s own genial nature and charm of manner.

Even our philosophers delighted in his freshness and

originality, and Mr. (Thomas) Carlyle himself has been heard

to speak of him emphatically as the ‘divine Artemus.’ ”43

By November, his lecture, Artemus Ward Among the Mormons

complete with panorama opened in the Egyptian Hall in

Piccadilly. There were great expectations and his premiere

was heralded by several newspapers. Typical was the front-

page story in The Illustrated Sporting Theatrical News which with a

large illustration of Ward in coattails. Noting his success

in New York, the paper said, “ During the representation of

the ‘picters,’ Artemus is on hand, and describes in his own

happy style everything that is interesting to his auditors,

and more too. He is exceedingly funny and keeps his hearers

in a continual roar of laughter from the he first opens his

mouth until the audience are dismissed for the night.”44

His theatrical reception was much like he received in

New York. Here are excerpts of The Times of London’s notice:

Before a large audience, comprising an extraordinary number of literary celebrities, Mr. Artemus Ward, the noted American humorist made his first appearance as a public lecturer on Tuesday evening, the place selected for the display of his quaint oratory being the room long tenanted by Mr. Arthur Sketchley. His first entrance on the platform was the signal for loud and continuous laughter and applause, denoting the degree of expectation which a nervous man might have feared toencounter. However, his first sentences, and the way inwhich they were received, amply sufficed to prove his success was certain…. The jokes he lets fall with an air of profound unconsciousness – we may also say melancholy – which irresistibly droll, aided as it is by the effect of a figure singularly gaunt and lean anda face to match. And he has found an audience by whom his caustic humor is thoroughly appreciated. . .

The subject of Artemus Ward’s lecture is a visit to theMormons, copiously illustrated by a series of moving pictures, not much to be commended as works of art, butfor the most part well enough executed to give (fidelity granted) a notion of life as it is among the remarkable inhabitants of Utah. . .

But to most of us Mormonism is still a mystery, and under those circumstances a lecturer who has professedly visited a country for the sake more of picking up fun than of sifting facts, and whose chief

object it must be to make his narrative amusing, can scarcely be accepted as an authority. We will, therefore, content ourselves with stating that the lecture is entertaining to such a degree that to those who seek amusement its brevity is its only fault; that it is utterly free from offence, though the opportunities for offence given by the subject of Mormonism are obviously numbers; and that it is interspersed, not only with irresistible jobs, but withshrewd remarks, proving that Artemus Ward is a man of reflection, as well as a consummate humorist.45

The review was circulated to U.S. newspapers,which

reprinted it. The show ran from November 11, 1866 through

January 23, 1867, with Ward missing a few nights because of

illness. Ward only performed his lecture for nine weeks in

London, but the memory of the show was shared through books

and excerpts reprinted in newspapers and other collections.

For example, Robertson and Hingston chronicled the lecture

in the book, Artemus Ward’s Lecture. The book reads like a script

and chronicles the panorama pictures and Ward’s monologue

with timing and laugh lines.

Since falling ill in Salt Lake City, Ward had never

been entirely healthy. Some nights at the Egyptian Hall,

audience members noted the lack of energy and frail health

of the performer. After cancelling the run of the Mormon

lecture, Ward went to island of Jersey to recover his

health. He returned as far as Southhampton where he died on

March 6. After first being buried in the catacombs of Kensal

Green Cemetery in Kensington, Ward's remains were removed to

the United States on May 20, 1868. He was reburied at Elm

Vale Cemetery in his birthplace of Waterford, Maine.

3.      Ward’s influence on British and American thought about Mormonism and public opinion during his London performances and after his death.

For Mormonism, this famous “genial showman” had much to

do with setting the stage of how Americans and Britons

viewed the religion. Ward’s influence on public opinion can

be documented in many ways, most anecdotal and

circumstantial.

Numerous articles have been made available in British

papers from the British Library through the digitization

through several databases. The newspapers from 1850-1900

chronicle the popularity of Ward’s Mormon lecture in England

and his long-term effect of Ward on the Mormon image into

the 20th Century. In that time period there are more than

15,000 references to the combined search terms “Artemus

Ward” and “Mormons.”

In the United States, a search of a similar database,

shows that between 1860 and 1925, there are more than 730

articles which reference Ward and Mormons. Most early

references are about his fictional meeting with Brigham

Young, advertisements and reviews of his performances and

dispatches from his work in England. After his death, there

are many reminiscences and of his work, advertisements and

excerpts of the book Artemus Ward’s Lecture. 46 Artemus’ writings

about Mormons were quoted in newspapers well into the early

part of the 20th Century.

While Ward’s lectures and writings were presented in

fun, messages presented in popular culture do help define

Mormons. During Ward’s lifetime, the lecture did perpetuate

stereotypes of Mormons and became part of the larger body of

both fictional and non-fictional work that marginalized

Mormons or presented them as the Other.

For example, research shows that Ward’s performances

fall within the era of the first documented anti-Mormon

theatrical performances, particularly in New York. While

there is no evidence found at this point to suggest Ward’s

“lecture” was inspired by other Mormon-themed productions

during the period, it is a worthy area of continued

research. Ward’s first performance of Artemus Ward Among the

Mormons, in October 1864 is predated by at least two

Mormon-themed productions in New York in 1858.47

Ward’s first Mormon show in New York City was a hit. In

the 1864 New York theater season, Artemus Ward’s Mormons was

listed among the most popular shows including Donizetti’s

Sebastiano, John Owen’s Solon Shingle, Maggie Mitchell’s Fanchon,

Clarke’s Paul Pry, and Edwin Booth’s Shakespeare.The New Orleans

Times Picayune wrote this about the 1864 slate of shows: “All

theaters, etc., are crowded to excess every night, war or no

war, incendiaries or what not.”48

Ward occupied a unique performance space between stage

plays, often looked down on as bawdy and inappropriate for

Victorian society’s most proper, and the more formalized and

acceptable lecture and panorama. There is little research

about Ward’s connection to the more “base” stage plays.

Civil War-era melodramas, which often portrayed Mormons as

villains out to enslave women, are well documented. That

research, however, does not draw any connection to Ward.

It’s high probable that Ward helped to prime audiences for

the popular Mormon melodramas that followed.

Ward’s show was also unique because of its reach

throughout the United States and eastern Canada. Research

suggests that there was likely no better-travelled “Mormon

entertainment” in the 1860s than Ward’s. He was tireless in

his travels and would go weeks from city to town to city

with his large trunks and panorama in tow.

In England, Ward was lionized and remembered well into

the 20th century even though his actual show only lasted

nine weeks. A reminiscence printed in the The Times of

London in 1934 said “Artemus Ward would soon have been

forgotten if nothing but reports of his lecture had

survived. Next to Mark Twain, Artemus Ward was for long

accepted as the typical exponent of “American humor,”

wherein the substance is matter-of-fact, the method one of

quaint expression… One wonders what more he would have done

had he not died in his early thirties. He would have made

many more jokes, certainly; he might also have grown

dissatisfied with too easy successes and proved himself

capable of deeper-lying humor that endures.”49

In response to the Times’ feature, several letter

writers commented on their experience with Ward. E.A.Wallis

Budge wrote about how he obtained tickets to be “packed like

herrings in a barrel” to watch Artemus.

All London had gone mad over the now famous Mormon lecture, and the Egyptian Hall was literally mobbed all day long by men and women of all classes wanting tickets. In Piccadilly we were met by a large number of men dressed like Indians inleather garments and bright colored scarves and belts, and many of them were flourishing daggers and bowie knives and horse-pistols and bows and arrows as they distributed leaflets imploring everybody to come to Egyptian Hall. 50

Among the English, he was remembered with everything

from a tune in a penny song book to a group dance. For

example, The Mormon’s Quadrille sheet music was dedicated to

Artemus Ward’s honor.51

How else did Ward’s words live on? Ward’s rhetoric was

cited by the English press as a reason to discriminate

against Mormons. An 1882 article datelined London and

reprinted in the Salt Lake Tribune noted the refusal of then-

Prime Minister William E. Gladstone to restrict the

immigration of women from Great Britain to Utah.

Our prime minister has been asked in a semi-official way if he cannot interfere to prevent the steady departure form this country of misguided women to join the ranks of Mormonism. Mr. Gladstone has replied that he cannot, for it appears to him that the women go voluntarily, and I suppose they do. I believe they would even far greater in number had poor Artemus Ward never sought to prick the pernicious bubble. If the vile fabric ever crumbles to pieces the credit will be largely due to the trenchant ridicule of the ever-to-be-lamented moral showman.52

In an 1889 article, Mormons in Norwich, England, the

writer gives an account of shy Mormon missionaries calling

on a Norwich public official. “He half expected to witness

some such scene of conjugal felicity on a large scale as

Artemus Ward encountered when he visited Brigham Young. But

he was spared so embarrassing an experience.”53

Apparently, Artemus Ward’s Mormon image wasn’t negative

enough when the Anti-Mormon League referred to it in March

1917. In a syndicated newspaper package printed in the San

Francisco Chronicle an article headlined “Mormons recruiting

thousads of Eurpopean war brides” began:

“The humorous writings of Artemus Ward did much to

cultivate in the popular mind the belief that Mormon women

were not only happy with their lot but they were the real

collectors of plural mates, an idea that is totally wrong,

says the Anti-Mormon League. This illustration, from A.Ward’s

Book’ pictures him as struggling desperately against a tall,

gaunt female who shrieked, ‘Stay, stay and be sealed unto

several of us.’ ”54

In England, Ward’s popularity likely served to amplify

his Mormon humor. Researchers say Ward’s homespun style and

deadpan delivery helped turn British distaste for American

literature into best-selling articles published in the late

1800s in British books, newspapers, and magazines. Ward’s

Mormon jokes and writings were among those sold, shared and

reprinted. British newspapers printed thousands of U.S.

jokes including columns named such things as “Yankee snaps”

and “Stars and Stripes.” By the 1880s, millions of men,

women and children were consuming American humor each week.

Names such as Mark Twain and Artemus Ward became household

names.55

Ward’s jokes also became favorites in an English

Christmas tradition – Christmas crackers. These cardboard

tubes covered with colorful paper were filled with small

toys, perhaps a paper crown and, often, jokes. When two

people pull on either end of the cracker, the cracker splits

and makes a sound like a cap gun. Jokes from Yankee writers,

including Ward, became a favorite. 56

Conclusion

Popular culture has always been an important source for

information even about public affairs or perceptions of

religious or ethnic groups. Even when presented in

exaggeration or through humor, misinformation can be

conveyed. That may even be more the case when presented in

appealing and memorable popular culture settings.

Since early in Mormon history, Mormons have become the

butt of jokes, gags and misinformation.,They have been

portrayed as the boogeyman or the Other to be feared and

distrusted, to the point of persecution and discrimination.

This research on Artemus Ward helps shine a light on some of

the earliest appearances of this phenomenon that impacted

Mormon perception and identity in the United States and

England. This tension between fact and faction, humor and

satire, or faithful and faithless views of believers

continues today in popular culture and media. The study of

this historical and contemporary tension between the

portrayals in popular culture and media versus the image

preferred by the official church and rank-and-file Mormons

is a rich vein for researchers to mine. Thus, historical

research can help to illuminate such modern tension between

popular culture’s portrayal of Mormonism versus Mormons’ own

self perception in such settings as The Book of Mormon musical,

Big Love, or The Simpsons.

1 Mark Twain was reported to have said this in a lecture given November 21, 1871 at Plymouth Church. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 22, 1871. Accessed June 3, 2014 at http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/roughingit/lecture/7172rev08.html Alsoattributed to Melville Landon (aka Eli Perkins) in Richard H. Cracroft, (1974). Distorting polygamy for fun and profit: Artemus Ward and Mark Twain among the Mormons. Page 13.2 Jennifer A. Greenhill, , J. A., 1974. (2012). In Jennifer A. Greenhill. (Ed.), Playing it straight : Art and humor in the gilded age ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012). .3 James C. Austin, Artemus Ward (New Haven, Conn.: Twayne Publishers, 1964) 13-14. 4 Ibid. 102-103.5 Cracroft, Distorting. 13, ,6 Cracroft. Page 13.Ibid. 7 Neal Lambert and Richard Cracroft, “. Through Gentile Eyes: A Hundred Years of the Mormons in Fiction,” New Eraa magazine, March 1972.8 Hugh R. Haweis, “ (1883). Artemus Ward,”. American humorists: lectures delivered at the Royal Institution (2nd Edition) (London: , Chatto & Windus,: London, 1883), 120-142.9 “Artemus Ward Visits Brigham Young,”. Portland Transcript, 24(3), November 17, 1860 10 Artemus Ward (1860). 11 Artemus Ward (1860).Ibid.12 IbidArtemus Ward (1860).13 IbidArtemus Ward (1860).14 Cracroft, Distorting (1974); Don C. Seitz,. (1919). Artemus Ward (Charles

Farrar Browne) : A biography and bibliography (In by Don C. Seitz, with illustrations and facsimiles. (Eds.), Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne) : A biography and bibliography New York; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1919). .

15 Edward P. Hingston,. (1881). The genial showman: Reminiscences of the life of Artemus Ward (London: Chatto and Windus, 1881). s.

16 Haweis, Artemus Ward. (1883). 17 Haweis (1883).Ibid. 18 Hingston. (1881); Haweis, Artemus Ward. (1883).19 Cracroft, Distorting. (1974). 20 Haweis, Artemus Ward. (1883).21 Cracroft, Distorting. (1974).

22 David S. Hawes. (1964), “Artemus Ward will speak a piece,”. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 50, 421-431.

23 Hawes. (1964).Ibid. 24 “A scene in the Mormon Theatre at Salt Lake City,” San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, April 11, 1864, Page 3, said to have been reprinted from the New York Atlas under the byline of E.P.H.25 “Two Visitors.” Deseret News, April 20, 1864, . Page 4.26 Ibid. “Two Visitors.”27 Hawes. (1964)., Artemus Ward. 28 Enoch Knight,. (1907). “Charles F. Browne (‘“Artemus Ward’”): The Tribute of a Friend and Fellow-townsman,”. Putnam’s Monthly, 1907. .

29 Huhtamo, E., author. (2013). In Erkki Huhtamo. (Ed.), Illusions in motion : Media archaeology of the moving panorama and related spectacles (Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013). .30 Weekly Eastern Argus, Portland, Maine, June 2, 1864, Page 1, column 1.31 T.W. Robertson and E.P. Hingston, Artemus Ward’s Lecture as delivered at Egyptian Hall (, London:. John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly; New York : and G.W. Carelton and Co., Broadway, 1869)., Compiled from pages 209-213.32 Ibid., Page 100.33 Ibid., Page 130-131.34 Ibid., Page 101.35 Ibid., Page 120.36 Ibid., Page 154.37 Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, Santa Cruz, California, December 10, 1864, page 2.38 New York Herald review reprinted in Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, April 1, 1865, Page 6.39 Washington Theater advertisement. National Republican, Washington, D.C.. Sept. 13, 1865, Page3.40 Artemus Ward; His Travels (New York: Carlton, 1865). 41 A copy of the book, Artemus Ward, His Travels in the author’s possessionincludes the recorded date of performance in the cover along with a copy of a program from the date of performance.42 Artemus Ward review. The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 8, 1865, Page 2.43 Quoting the New Quarterly Magazine, New York Times, 14 May 1876, Page 4.44 “Artemus Ward,” Illustrated Sporting Theatrical News, London, November 17, 1866, . Page 1.45 Ibid.; Robertson and Hingston. Appendix, Page 1.46 Search of Newspapers.com database. Based in Lindon, Utah.

47 Jones, M. S. (2009). In Megan Sanborn Jones. (Ed.), Performing American identity in anti-Mormon melodrama (New York: Routledge, 2009)., Pages 17-18.48 Times-Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana, Dec. 9, 1864, Page 4.49 “Artemus Ward, popular entertainer, ,” The Times, April 26, 1934, page 17.50 “Artemus Ward in London, Letters to the Editor,” The Times, April 30, 1934, page 15.51 Mormon’s quadrille. Composer: Coote, Charles; Artist/Lithographer: Concanen & Alfred. Dedicatee: Artemus Ward. VADS Collection: SpellmanCollection of Victorian Music Covers. 52 “London. Mormonism in England,”. Salt Lake Tribune. Dec. 31, 1882, . Page7.53 “Mormons in Norwich.”. Reprinted from Norwich, England, Daily Press in (Salt Lake City) Deseret News, August, 17, 1889. Page 31.54 J. Keeley, copyright attributed too,, “Mormon Recruiting Thousand of European War Brides,” San Francisco Chronicle, 18 March 1917, Page 6.55 Russell Jenkins, “Russell. Blame first U.S. stand-ups for Christmas cracker joke,”. The Times of London, December 24, 2010. See also Bob Nicholson, “ Bob. The Old and New World, Negotiating Past, Present and Future in Anglo-American Humor, 1880-1900,”. Chapter in History and Humor, British and American Perspectives (, Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag: Bielefeld, Germany, 2013), pages 151-170.56 Ibid. Jenkins, Blame. .