The benefit which he gave Mrs.Jefferson Davis in New Orleans, which was denounced at the North as toadying to the Rebels, proceeded from a wholly different motive.

He took a kindly interest in the case because it was represented to him as one of suffering, and knew very well at the time that his bounty would meet with detraction.
He used to relate with gusto an interview he once had with Murat Halstead, who had printed a tart paragraph about him.

He went into the office of the Cincinnati editor, and began in his usual jocose way to ask for the needful correction.

Halstead resented the proffered familiarity, when Artemus told him flatly, suddenly changing front, that he "didn't care a d--n for the Commercial, and the whole establishment might go to hell." Next day the paper appeared with a handsome amende, and the two became excellent friends.

"I have no doubt," said Artemus, "that if I had whined or begged, I should have disgusted Halstead, and he would have put it to me tighter.