A dozen years or so ago, when Mr. Bangs faced at home an audience,
which had gathered to hear his address on "The Evolution of the
Humorist," he said:
"I was born in and have resided in Yonkers for a number of years; I
have braved the perils of life in this community, and have endured,
without a murmur, the privations common to all of us."
A modest biography, and withal an illustration of Mr. Bangs's
philosophy. He takes things as they come--and leaves his imprint on
them. Comparisons of skill aside, no man could do more.
John Kendrick Bangs was born in Yonkers, New York, in May, 1862. His
father, Francis N. Bangs, was a prominent New York lawyer, in fact,
one of the most prominent lawyers the New York bar has ever known. His
grandfather was the Rev. Nathan Bangs, D.D., the first historian of
the Methodist Church in this country, the first editor of a Methodist
paper, and for many years president of Wesleyan University, Middletown,
Connecticut.
In 1883, after receiving such an education as any New York boy of a
well-to-do New York family receives, young Bangs was graduated with the
degree of Bachelor of Philosophy from the School of Political Science
of Columbia University, New York. For a year and a half afterward
he studied law in his father's office--studied at "long range," as
he has said himself. But all the time he was impatient to go into
literature. "I was more of a fighter," he says, "and it seemed to me
that a man has enough battles of his own to wage without rushing after
the battles of other people." Gradually his inherited fondness for
literature smothered his zeal as a student of law. While contributing
in his undergraduate days to the college paper, _Acta Columbiana_,
he had enjoyed a taste of literary glory. So, between dips into his
father's dry volumes, he wrote little sketches in his characteristic
vein. These tentative works introduced him favorably to the managers
of _Life_, and, late in 1884, he became associated with Mr. Mitchell
in the editorship of that entertaining periodical. In addition to
his editorial work he undertook to maintain the attractive "By the
Way" page, and to this valuable feature of _Life_ he contributed an
extraordinary amount of original matter. What would not have been asked
of many other men was requested of the new humorist in the most casual
manner, for he quickly proved that, besides possessing a keen literary
instinct and that kindly and delightful insight into human nature
which, brought together, double the value of a comic paper, he also
possessed remarkable energy and power of application.
In 1887, while still connected with _Life_, and shortly after his
marriage, young Bangs went abroad, and during this absence from
editorial work his first book, "Roger Camorden, a Strange Story," was
published. It was an unusual and very promising tale of hallucination,
and its success was encouraging. That same year, in collaboration with
his friend and classmate, Frank Dempster Sherman, he produced a series
of satirical and humorous pieces, which were put into a volume under
the title of "New Waggings of old Tales." Soon afterward he resigned
from _Life_, in order to devote more time to larger work.
The first product of the rising author's independent career was a
travesty on "The Taming of the Shrew" called "Katherine," which he
wrote for a dramatic association connected with the Seventh Regiment of
the New York National Guard. It followed the Shakespearean construction
rather closely, and, with its many quips and gags and jolly songs, made
a first-rate libretto for a comic opera. The popularity of the travesty
advertised the fame of Bangs from one end of Manhattan Island to the
other. The following year, for the same organization, he wrote another
travesty, "Mephistopheles, a Profanation"; and this, too, won much
popularity and further brightened its author's name.
The happy results of his experience as the father of three boys were
noticeable in the book which Mr. Bangs published in 1891, "Tiddledywink
Tales," the first of a series of amusing stories for children. The
other divisions of this series are "In Camp with a Tin Soldier," "The
Tiddledywink Poetry Book," and "Half Hours with Jimmie-Boy," books
that have endeared their author to half the grown-up children in the
land. It was by means of these books that he became a most welcome
contributor to Harper's Round Table and to the juvenile departments of
various literary syndicates. A novel, "Toppleton's Client," appeared
in 1893, and in that year also appeared his first widely successful
work, "Coffee and Repartee," a collection of Idiot papers, which has
been described, and with good reason, as a mixture of Oliver Wendell
Holmes and Bill Nye. Those were not, compared with the present time,
enthusiastic literary days, and yet in a few years fifty thousand
copies of the little book were sold. "Coffee and Repartee" was followed
at regular intervals by "The Water-Ghost," "The Idiot," "Mr. Bonaparte
of Corsica," and by the other books whose names have at some time, been
on every liberal reader's tongue.
One of the most entertaining of the New Yorker's books is "Ten Weeks
in Politics," behind the writing of which is a story worth telling. In
1894 Mr. Bangs was nominated by the Democrats for Mayor of Yonkers.
"No candidate, I sincerely believe," says his friend Mr. Corbin, "ever
entered a political campaign with greater seriousness or with a more
strenuous desire to devote himself to the public good; and except for
any one of half a dozen accidents he would have been elected. To begin
with, one of the cleverest of New York newspapers, the editorial
policy of which has been suspected of personal prejudice, appeared to
bear a grudge against Mr. Bangs, and persecuted him in prose and in
verse with the implication that he was making a farce of politics. But
the real cause of his defeat, as he explains with a quiet smile, was
the fact that he refused one midnight to turn his house into a beer
garden for the benefit of a local German band that serenaded him; and
in point of fact the votes of the musicians and their heelers were
enough to turn the scale. Though Mr. Bangs is always willing to laugh
at the figure he cut as a politician, he has never lost the sense of
his duty as a citizen. His victorious rival had the magnanimity, which
in such cases is scarcely to be distinguished from political wisdom, to
offer him a subordinate position in his administration--on the Board
of Education, I think. Mr. Bangs had the magnanimity, which could not
have contained the least scruple of policy, to accept the position and
to fill it to the best of his ability, even while he was writing his
'Ten Weeks in Politics.' This episode is thoroughly characteristic."
Mr. Bangs has spoken of that defeat as the greatest blessing that he
ever met. "In later years," he says, "when I saw how I would have been
forced to abandon my chosen profession for politics, when I learned
that the mayoralty would have taken every moment of my time, I was
glad that I had been defeated. I saw, for the first time, the truth in
the saying that a man can do more to bring success within his grasp by
standing by his original proposition, even if it be a humorous one. And
politics and humor do not mix, unless you happen to be a cartoonist."
Politics and humor mix well enough in the right man; but it is not to
be doubted that literature has been the gainer by the result of that
election in Yonkers. The defeated candidate would probably have made an
excellent Mayor. He certainly would have made a conscientious Mayor;
and by reason of this conscientiousness the reading public would have
missed books which have made us certain that Mr. Bangs is a gifted
humorist.
Mr. Corbin, by the way, tells another interesting story of his friend's
characteristic activity. "Once when I went to Yonkers," says Mr.
Corbin, "he appeared as the proprietor of a livery stable. He explained
that the business had been running down when he took it, and that by
charging himself a thousand or two a year for cab hire he was making a
'go' of it; and that moreover, as he paid his account to himself it
did not cost him anything to ride. The plain fact seemed to be that his
ready purse and his business sense had saved a humble neighbor from
misfortune."
Before closing the political chapter of Mr. Bangs's career it may prove
interesting to quote from a "send-off" which a Yonkers paper gave him
on March 10, 1894, just before the German band episode.
"Mr. Bangs," it said, "is a Democrat of the strictest kind, and can
always be relied upon to care for and advance the interests of his
party, while at the same time he will so guard and guide the municipal
ship as to avoid the rocks of reckless expenditure, and pass safely
into the harbor of wise economy. With such a candidate the Democracy
believes it can surely recapture the mayoralty, and at the same time
secure for the city a young, able, and in all respects a competent,
honest, and faithful chief magistrate.
"Mr. Bangs is popular in the club life of the city, being a member of
the old Palisade Boat Club and the Yonkers Lawn Tennis Club. In the
latter he is the Chairman of the Entertainment Committee, and also a
member of the Building and Book Committees. He is not only one of the
best lawn tennis players in the club, but in the alleys of the boat
club has proved himself a skillful bowler, having figured conspicuously
in the recent annual tournament. He recently proved himself a public
speaker of no mean order when he delivered his lecture on 'The
Evolution of the Humorist from Adam to Bill Nye,' for a charitable
object. He also took prominent part in the last charity ball, which is
the social event of the season in this city."
How that catalogue of social and athletic qualifications must have
appealed to a man of the victim's sense of humor!
Mr. Bangs takes his own medicine. He firmly believes that humor
sweetens life. "Show me a man who does not appreciate humor," he said
once, "and I will show you a man who is morbid, cynical, unresponsive
to every fine impulse of nature. Such a man is worse than a pessimist,
and more to be pitied. Take some of the greatest and most successful
men in the world. Humor has always played an important part in their
lives. Often a funny incident has marked the turning-point of a great
man's career; often some ridiculous position has been the impetus
of a new start in life. Humor is as necessary to the home as is the
cooking stove. I mean good, healthy humor. It eases the mind and it
becomes an educator; it fills and makes pleasant many a long night;
it gives encouragement to the wanderer; it relieves the tired mother
of the burden of her cares; it encourages men and women to look on
the bright side of life, and the bright side is the only side which
should be exposed to view. Literature is the best vehicle of humor. In
literature it lives the longest, and in literature it can be studied
and appreciated to the best advantage. Someone has said that literature
robs humor of its spontaneity! A mistake! A great mistake! A good,
solid humorous book, or passage in a book, can be appreciated a hundred
times over. The mind retains fun longer than it retains cold facts. You
will hear a man repeat something funny that he read, years after, when
he couldn't, for his life, tell you the rudiments of the mathematical
problems which he spent years in trying to master. A good man looks
upon a good book as a friend. He goes to it for consolation whenever
he feels blue and sullen, whenever nostalgia claims him as her own. How
quickly do the careworn, the tired, the strugglers, the successful ones
as well, find rest in the realms of humor!"
In the course of his busy life--to give some facts not to be found
in the Yonkers eulogy--Mr. Bangs has been vestryman of a church, a
purchaser of books for a public library, a journalist, and a director
of a private school. At present he is giving brilliant service as
editor of _Harper's Weekly_. Meantime, his pen, or his typewriter, is
not idle at home, as the publication a few months ago of "The Idiot at
Home" attests.
[Illustration: HAMLIN GARLAND.]