Artemus Ward -- Charles Farrar Browne -- was also a 19th century humorist. As I recall, his eccentricities on the plat- form and in his personal life make his popularity back then unfathomable to modern day readers. This is a man who used the same speech year after year after year and began it with the drop-dead laugh line "We are all descended from our grandfathers." Try that out next time you have to give a speech! Go figure. There is a famous picture taken of Mark Twain in a three-shot with Josh Billings and Petroleum V. Nasby where Twain is seen standing in the center with the other two seated to his left and right. He towers over them in the photo, just as he does in talent and legacy. (See Kaplan, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, p.216) Similarly, Twain eclipses Ward. But their friendship went back as far as the days out West, where they were not only itinerant lecturers but drinking buddies as well. The point being that in understanding Twain one might do well to understand the context and "characters" of his time. Ward plays a part in that, thereby making Twain's life and achievement all the more remarkable by comparison. One man's opinion. Regards, Roger Durrett