Scarecrow and the Tin-Man
Date: 1904-08-01T05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Imaginary Creatures; Humorous stories; Juvenile fiction
Description: Here is a rare Oz story by W. W. Denslow, illustrator of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Two of the most iconic characters in the Oz universe have been performing tirelessly on Broadway in the musical extravaganza, “The Wizard of Oz.” They decide to take an impromptu vacation, and chaos ensues. Although the story is very short and rather slight, fans of the art in the first Oz book will enjoy this whimsical comic adventure. ------------ William Wallace Denslow (May 5, 1856 – March 29, 1915) was an American illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his work in collaboration with author L. Frank
Publisher: MobileRead.com
Rights: This book is in public domain worldwide.

About This eBook

Scarecrow and the Tin Man

WRITTEN AND
ILLUSTRATED BY
W. W. DENSLOW
(1856–1915)

With 12 color illustrations.

Here is a rare Oz story by W. W. Denslow, illustrator of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, who shared copyright with L. Frank Baum.

Two of the most iconic characters in the Oz universe have been performing tirelessly on Broadway in the musical extravaganza, The Wizard of Oz. They decide to take an impromptu vacation, and chaos ensues.

Although the story is very short and rather slight, fans of the art in the first Oz book will enjoy this whimsical comic adventure.

William Wallace Denslow (May 5, 1856 – March 29, 1915) was an American illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his work in collaboration with author L. Frank Baum, especially his illustrations for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Each man held full copyright to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Having quarreled over royalty shares from the 1902 stage adaptation, in late 1904 each began a competitive Sunday comic strip: Baum’s “Queer Visitors from the Land of Oz,” and “Denslow’s Scarecrow and Tin-Man.” The contents of this book appeared as two episodes in Denslow’s strip.

This book was first published in 1904.
The text of this ebook is in the public domain worldwide because the creator died more than 100 years ago.

This ebook was created by ECM for MobileRead.com, August 2025, and may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes.

“It is a shame, said the Scarecrow to the Tin-man, one afternoon as they were resting after the performance, here we are working day after day, night after night to amuse the children, and we haven’t time for any fun ourselves. I’m going to strike, I am.”

“That’s so,” said the Tin-man, “we haven’t had a vacation in two years.”

“Say—let’s break out and wake up the town,” replied the Scarecrow. “Come on.”

So, while the manager was counting his money, the Scarecrow and the Tin-man quietly stole out of the stage door and ran down the street, greatly to the surprise of the stage doorkeeper, who told the manager that the stars had run away.

There was a great hubbub back of the scenes when they found that the Scarecrow and the Tin-man had fled.

The police were notified and searchers were sent everywhere to catch the truants, for the evening performance could not go on without them.

Meanwhile the runaway pair were having a wild, jolly time in the old town.

They ran until they thought they were safe from pursuit, and then jumped on a street car to get as far from the theater as they could in a short time.

“Fare,” said the conductor.

“What’s that?” asked the Scarecrow.

“Pay your money or get off!” said the conductor.

The Scarecrow and the Tin-man laughed at the idea of anyone wanting money from them.

“We haven’t any,” said the Tin-man.

“Then off you go!” and the conductor tossed the two from the car.

“That Tin-man had a hard face,” said an old lady near the door.

Bang! went the Tin-man and the Scarecrow into a banana and apple stand kept by an Italian on the corner, as they came off the car in a hurry.

Down went the stand, fruit and the two friends into the gutter.

Of course the banana man was angry, and talked loudly in broken English.

Away the two friends flew down the street with the angry banana man after them, calling loudly for his pay for the spoiled fruit.

“Everybody seems to want money,” said the Scarecrow, as he jumped into an automobile that was standing by the curb. In tumbled the Tin-man, and away they dashed, leaving the Italian waving his arms wildly on the corner.

“This is great,” said the Scarecrow.

“It beats the theater all to pieces,” replied the Tin-man, as they fairly flew over the avenue at a reckless pace.

“Hi! Stop there,” shouted a bicycle policeman. “You are going too fast.”

But they only waved him a tra-la as they sped along.

The policeman blew a loud blast on his whistle, and the auto was hemmed in and surrounded by policemen just as the Scarecrow steered the machine into a mortar bed in front of a new building.

The automobile turned a complete somersault, scattering mortar, brick and sand in all directions over the policemen and the crowd that was collecting.

At this stage the auto commenced to sizzle and suddenly blew up sending our friends high in the air.

One of the policemen turned in an alarm, and the fire-engines were soon on the spot to put out the fire on the auto, and taking advantage of the confusion the two friends dodged down an alley, out on another street and were soon far away.

By and by they found themselves in Madison Square near the fountain, when a man carelessly threw a lighted match directly into the straw that was sticking out of the Scarecrow’s chest and set him in a blaze.

The Tin-man seeing this danger, with rare presence of mind caught up his friend and dumped him into the fountain, but in doing so he stumbled and fell in himself.

Now, what was good for the Scarecrow was not good for the Tin-man, and after they had crawled out of the water he began to rust, and as he had left his oil-can at the theater, he was soon stiff in all his joints, so that the Scarecrow had to help him along.

Just then they heard a voice behind them say, “There they are; arrest them.”

It was the voice of the manager who was hunting them with a squad of policemen.

There was no escape, as the Tin-man was so rusty by this time that he could scarcely move, and the happy pair were soon hustled into a patrol wagon and given a ride to the station.

When they came before the judge, and he had heard the complaint of the manager, he sentenced the Scarecrow and the Tin-man to another year in the theater to make fun for the children.

“That’s all right,” said the Scarecrow. “We have had out little fun and it’s all right. We go back with pleasure.”

The Scarecrow oiled up the Tin-man so that he was as good as ever, and got some new straw to swell out his own chest, and the two friends shone with new luster at the evening performance that night. The children laughed as they had never laughed before at the droll antics of the Scarecrow and the Tin-man.