Would you let me know the source of "Is he dead?" joke in The Innocents
Abroad?  I know that this famous joke is used in a work of Artemus Ward,
 but I do NOT know where Ward mentioned this joke.

I am a graduate student at Kyoto universty in Japan. My field of concern is
the relationship between MT and popular culture.

      Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you.

                                                                         Tsu
yoshi Ishihra