_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1852-78.
Shirley Brooks--His Wit and Humour--Training--Lays Siege to
_Punch_--And Carries him by Assault--"Essence of
Parliament"--William Brough--Mr. Beatty Kingston--F. I.
Scudamore--M. J. Barry--Dean Hole--Mr. Charles L. Eastlake--Mr.
Francis Cowley Burnand--His Little Joke with Cardinal
Manning--"Fun"--"Mokeanna"--Its Success--Thackeray's
Congratulations to _Punch_--"Happy Thoughts"--And Other Happy
Thoughts--Mr. Burnand _as_ a Ground-Swell--Promoted to the
Editorship--The Apotheosis of the Pun--Mr. J. Priestman
Atkinson--Mr. John Hollingshead--Mr. R. F. Sketchley--"Artemus
Ward"--A Death-bed Ambition--H. Savile Clarke--Locker-Lampson
and C. S. Calverley--Miss Betham-Edwards--Mr. du Manner's "Vers
Nonsensiques"--Mr. A. P. Graves--Rev. Stainton Moses--Mr. Arthur
W. à Beckett--"A. Briefless, Junior"--Mortimer Collins--Mr. E.
J. Milliken--"The 'Arry Papers"--Gilbert à Beckett--"How we
Advertise Now"--Mr. H. F. Lester--Mr. Burnand and the Corporal.
[Illustration: SHIRLEY BROOKS.
(_From a Photograph by Lombardi and Co._)]
Shirley Brooks--he dropped his first names of Charles William--was
perhaps the most brilliant and useful all-round man who ever wrote for
_Punch_. His rapidity was extraordinary. The clergyman who boasted that
he could write a sermon in an hour "and think nothing of it" courted the
reply that probably the congregation thought nothing of it either. But
the single hour in which Brooks began and finished the composition of
his "Rime of the Ancient Alderman" (1855)--a poem of fifty stanzas, that
fills nine pages in his volume of selected work--brought him criticism
of a different sort. His facility was not less astonishing, and I have
heard repeated some of his flashes of epigram enclosed in polished verse
which it would be hard to believe were extempore but for the
circumstances under which they were inspired. Indeed, his fancy, like
himself, was a diamond of great fire and high polish, and rich by
bounteous favour of nature. He was as witty as Jerrold without the
sting; but, when he chose, he could strike as hard, and, as he himself
once said, never care "a horse's mamma."
He had been articled to a solicitor, but he preferred the comic muse,
and _Punch_ on "Joe Miller" was more to him than Coke upon Littleton.
His humorous prose and graceful witty verse were cast upon the waters of
the comic press. He was thirty-two before he had his best chance of
making himself widely known in the line he especially loved. This was in
1847, when he began to write for the "Man in the Moon," which was just
started under the editorship of two _Punch_ men--Albert Smith and Angus
B. Reach. For the latter he had a close and tender friendship. When
Reach fell ill, Brooks did all his journalistic work for months, and
would touch not a penny of the money; as the cheques arrived, they were
immediately forwarded for the benefit of the sufferer. He was his
colleague on the "Morning Chronicle," for which Brooks was
gallery-reporter in the House of Commons for five sessions as well as
leader-writer, and when Reach was sent through France on an expedition
of inquiry into the condition of the agricultural classes, Brooks was
despatched through South Russia, Asia Minor, and Egypt. And in 1852 he
wrote in conjunction with him "A Story with a Vengeance," which was
partly illustrated by Charles Keene; but the artist was at that time so
little known that it was not considered worth the publisher's while to
mention his name.
Under Reach's editorship, then, he appeared in the "Man in the Moon,"
and the next year (1848) in Hannay's "Puppet Show." It was for the pages
of the former (November, 1847) that Brooks wrote one of the severest
assaults on _Punch_ ever published--the more severe for the excellence
of its quality. It was entitled "Our Flight with _Punch_" (in imitation
of Tom Taylor's "Flight with Russell" and his far less happy "Flight
with Louis Philippe," in _Punch_, August and October, 1847, Volume
XIII.), in which the "Man in the Moon" was supposed to fly, genie-like,
with _Punch_ over the land which at one time he ruled with his wit; and
the "Dreary Hunchback," as he was apostrophised, was caustically
besought to awake and stem the tide of his supposed degeneration. It is
hardly surprising that this poem, clever as it is, was not reprinted in
the posthumous collection of the writer's poems.
But not immediately did he conquer his position. There were still years
to wait, which were occasionally occupied with a pleasing attack on
_Punch_, one of which, it is said, drew from Leech his picture of two
little "snobs" in a low coffee-house. "_Punch_ is very dummy and slow
this week, I think," says the first disreputable-looking "fast man." "So
do I," replies the other. "It's their own fault, too, for I sent 'em
some dem'd funny articles, which the humbugs sent me back." "That's just
the way they served me," resumes his friend--"the great fools!" But at
last, at the end of 1851, his first contribution to _Punch_ was
received, and he was soon invited to join the Staff. He was not long in
making a mark with "Miss Violet," but it was not among his strongest
contributions. Nevertheless, "Epicurus Rotundus" was now a made man on
the highway to success.
It was his charm and grace as much as his vigour that compelled the
admiration of his fellows and their admission that he was the most
valuable accession that the Staff had ever received. At the dinner given
to Thackeray in 1856, Jerrold, in proposing Brooks's health, pronounced
him "the most rising journalist of the day," and Mark Lemon declared
openly that "Shirley's pen is the gracefullest in London." It was, in
fact, the general opinion at the time that his verses combined much of
the technical merit of Pope's with the keen sarcasm of Swift; and of
such verse he contributed not fewer than six hundred pieces in the
course of his _Punch_ career. One of their merits was the unexpected
spontaneity of their humour--the faculty that is distinctive of some of
the best of his _mots_, such as that when looking at Edmund Yates's
book-shelves which caused him to pause before one of the volumes and
read off "Homer's Iliad," and murmur, "Homer's--Yes--_that is the
best_." On one occasion he, with Mr. George Chester (my informant), was
on a visit to Mark Lemon at Crawley, and at the breakfast-table a
discussion arose between the two men upon noses, their shapes and
characteristics. Turning kindly to one of his host's little daughters,
and looking at her delicate little _nez retroussé_, he said, "When they
were looking about for a nose for you, my dear, they chose the first
that turned up"--a joke often since repeated and well-nigh worked to
death.
The contribution by which he will certainly be best and most gratefully
remembered is his "Essence of Parliament"--a work which was entirely his
own conception, and which was continued for twenty years from week to
week while Parliament was sitting, with cleverness, refinement, truth,
and humour that are invaluable to the historian and delightful to the
general reader. For this work his experience and training as the
"Chronicle" reporter were invaluable to him. Brooks was essentially a
politician in feeling, full of suggestion--apt, happy, and
ingenious--and yet could turn with ease and equal facility to social,
literary, poetical, or art-critical work, to his daily "leader" or
weekly article for the "Illustrated London News." He was in his time the
cartoon suggestor-in-chief, and towards the end of Mark Lemon's life
rendered great assistance in the editorship of the paper; although
Percival Leigh was the recognised _locum tenens_. Lemon had been dead
but just a week when Brooks wrote (June 1st, 1870) from the _Punch_
office to a friend:--
"Yesterday I accepted the Editorship of _Punch_. It will be a tie,
and give me trouble, but I seem to have been generally expected to
take the situation, and it is not good to disappoint General
Expectations, as he is a stern officer. Wish me good fortune--but I
know you do.
"I was offered a seat on a four-horse coach, for the Derby,
alongside M. Gustave Doré. But I am here. Who says I have no
self-denial?"
--which shows that he was already in harness.
In his editorship he took the utmost pride, and he would defend his
paper with spirit. When an ill-mannered acquaintance told him "that of
all the London papers he considered _Punch_ the dullest," Brooks
replied, "I wonder you ever read it." "I don't," said the other. "So I
thought," retorted the Editor, "by your foolish remark."
Shirley Brooks fell ill with a complication of disorders, and Mr.
Burnand did him the same service on _Punch_ that he had done for Lemon,
and that Leigh did for himself and Tom Taylor. When he was near his end,
and a newspaper acquaintance called persistently to inquire how he was
progressing, "Tell him," said the sick man, with a shrewd smile about
his lips, "that he shall have his 'par' in good time." He was engaged in
writing "Election Epigrams" and "The Situation" on his death-bed; and
died in February, 1874, before their publication. He was buried in the
cemetery of Kensal Green, close to where Thackeray lay by Leech, and
within whose walls, though at some distance apart, Doyle was to sleep,
and Henry Mayhew.
Neither Robert nor William Brough ever drew for _Punch_, but it is the
belief of their brother, Mr. Lionel Brough, that they were both at one
time literary contributors. Of this, however, I have no record. William
was brother-in-law to Mark Lemon, but the two men were not on the best
of terms. Robert, a provincial Jerrold, with all Douglas's power of
sarcasm and some of his genius, had started the "Liverpool Lion," and
was a brilliant comic draughtsman. It was the success of his play, "The
Enchanted Isle," that brought him to London, where he wrote burlesques
and so forth; but he will be remembered for his clever illustrations to
most of _Punch's_ rivals of his time, as well as his creation of "Billie
Barlow"--the "Ally Sloper" of the day; and it was not to _Punch's_
advantage that he did not enlist Brough's humorous talent.
In the year 1854--or it may have been a few months later--Mr. W. Beatty
Kingston made an early appearance with a cockney ballad on the subject
of the admission of female searchers to the penetralia of H.M. Record
Office, of which at that time he was a "flickering light" at £100 a
year. Soon he took service under the Hapsburgs, and left England
afterwards for nearly a quarter of a century. In 1883 he resumed comic
operations on the invitation of Mr. Burnand, and continued, until June,
1887, to contribute a good deal of verse, illustrated by Mr. Sambourne
and Mr. Furniss. Many of these pieces have since been republished in "My
Hansom Lays;" while of those which have since appeared some, such as "A
Triplet" and "The Wizard's Curse," have passed into the category of
"stock recitations."
Then F. I. Scudamore, still remembered for his _vers de société_, was a
passing contributor. But in 1855 he joined "The Comic Times," with other
of old _Punch_ outsiders, and then obtained an appointment in the
Government Telegraphs, and, with a Companionship of the Bath, the
superintendence of the Constantinople Post Office.
Mr. Ashby-Sterry's name belongs to the following year, but he appeared
solely as a draughtsman; his literary connection, which began
twenty-four years later, will be spoken of in its proper place. Michael
John Barry was another who at this time (1857) shed no little brilliancy
on _Punch_; and to him is now credited the admirable "Peccavi"
despatch--perhaps the most finished and pointed that ever appeared in
_Punch's_ pages, and certainly one of the most highly appreciated and
most loudly applauded:--
"'_Peccavi!_ I've _Scinde_,' said Lord Ellen[44] so proud--
Dalhousie, more modest, said '_Vovi_, I've _Oude_!'"
This brilliant couplet, according to the "Times," is said to have been
contended for by "both _Punch_ and Thomas Hood;" and it never was
finally decided which of the two great humorists followed the other.
Their claims, indeed, are not irreconcilable. Latterly, the credit has
been claimed, with some show of authority, for Barry, who was generally
regarded in his day as one of Jerrold's peers in wit. It is curious to
observe that in the House of Commons debate on the Candahar question,
Mr. P. J. Smyth was reported to have referred to "the unexampled brevity
of the General's despatch after he had won his great victory on the
Indus," in the quaint belief that the first half-line of the epigram was
Lord Ellenborough's actual report.
The Very Rev. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester, always a spoilt child of
_Punch's_, and the intimate friend of Leech, was more of a _Punch_ man
than most contributors, as he was one of the very few outsiders who were
ever entertained at the Wednesday Dinner.[45] "Some six-and-thirty years
ago," he informed me, "Mark Lemon wrote to me, '_Punch_ is proud of such
a contributor,' and I have his letter. I wrote a few short paragraphs
about Oxford, and some longer articles in verse, entitled 'The
Sportsman's Dream' and 'My Butler.' Leech told me, 'You are an honorary
member of our weekly meetings, and will be always welcome.'" His
charming book, "A Little Tour in Ireland," written "by an Oxonian," had
the advantage of Leech's pencil, and by his friendship with that artist,
as well as with Thackeray and others of the Staff, he was for a time
identified in some measure with _Punch_ itself, besides obtaining
recognition as the beau-ideal of "the genial, jolly parson." That he did
not become a regular contributor to the paper was due, it is believed,
to a subsequent misunderstanding.
In "Jack Easel," the writer of a number of delightful letters upon
artistic and social topics at home and abroad, it is difficult to
recognise Mr. Charles L. Eastlake, the able Keeper of the National
Gallery. From 1859 to the autumn of 1862 Mr. Eastlake contributed
eight-and-twenty articles of importance, one of them in verse, and the
majority headed "Our Roving Correspondent." "Jack Easel on the
Continent" and "The Royal Academy Exhibition" were the subjects of many
of them, and their note was lively enough to cause his papers to be
looked forward to by _Punch's_ readers.
Mr. Francis Cowley Burnand, when he first appeared in _Punch_, in 1863,
was no mere recruit; he was a proved humorist, though of short standing,
and his début was an astonishing success. His début, that is to say, as
a _Punch_ writer, for eight years previously he had sent up from
Cambridge a couple of drawings which Leech had made artistically
suitable for publication.
Mr. Burnand was born in 1837--having been too gallant, it was said, to
come into the world before his Queen had ascended the throne, and too
loyal and zealous to delay his appearance after she had taken her place.
He was sent to Eton, where, however, he did not care much for football,
being, as he expressed it, "more shinned against than shinning;" and
thence, at the age of seventeen, he went into Trinity College,
Cambridge. In three years he had graduated and had founded the still
flourishing "A.D.C.;" at the same time, he determined to enter the
Church. He placed himself under the Rev. H. P. (afterwards Canon)
Liddon; but soon left for the seminary of the Oblates of St. Charles, at
Bayswater, the head of which was Dr. (Cardinal) Manning. While there his
passion for playwriting was too strong to be resisted, and before he
left Dr. Manning confessed that he feared his young friend had no
"vocation," _i.e._ for the ecclesiastical state. Mr. Burnand, taking a
wider view of the term, entirely acquiesced with Dr. Manning, and added
rather timidly that he "thought he had a vocation for the stage." Dr.
Manning raised his eyebrows, wrinkled his forehead, sniffed, and then
said: "A 'vocation' concerns the spiritual welfare. You cannot speak of
'going on the stage' as a 'vocation.' You might as well call 'being a
cobbler' a 'vocation.'" "Well, yes, Dr. Manning," rejoined Mr. Burnand
very nervously; "but--if I were a cobbler I should still have the cure
of soles."
[Illustration: F. C. BURNAND.
(_From a Photograph by F. T. Palmer, Ramsgate._)]
An unsuccessful trial of the stage at Edinburgh, and a call to the Bar
in 1862, indirectly shaped Mr. Burnand's career, and, throwing him into
playwriting and humorous journalism, led him quickly into a talented
circle. With Mr. W. S. Gilbert, H. J. Byron, Matt Morgan, Jeff Prowse,
and others, Mr. Burnand helped to strengthen Tom Hood's additional staff
of "Fun," then newly established, under the proprietorship of a
looking-glass maker, named Maclean--whom, by reason of his expansive
smile and shining teeth, Byron used to call "Maclean teeth." Mr.
Burnand's fresh and bright productions sparkled on the pages and caught
the eye of Mark Lemon; but it was an unusually happy and original idea
that was to bring the two men closely together. Mr. Burnand had
conceived a series of burlesque stories, satirising the sensational
style of the day, to be accompanied by an equally burlesque imitation of
the illustrations that were to be seen in publications such as the
"London Journal." To his own daughter, as "one of his oldest friends,"
Mr. Burnand once confided the following facts and circumstances for
publication:--
"The astute proprietor of 'Fun,' in which I had achieved some
success, observed that 'Mokeanna' wouldn't do. I am not sure but
that he was right; but if he had been a literary editor he would
have seen the idea in a rough copy, and would have suggested
improvement. This good he did me, however--I read it to a friend,
who thought some of it good and most of it the contrary, and so, in
a temper, I burnt the entire manuscript, and, being quite sure of
the humour of the idea, commenced rewriting it. Then I communicated
with Mark Lemon; he jumped at the idea--determined to say nothing
to anybody, except those who had to illustrate it, and the first
number of 'Mokeanna' appeared on February 21st, 1863, with an
illustration by Sir John Gilbert, burlesquing his own style, whilst
the page in _Punch_ was, in arrangement, a facsimile of the 'London
Journal.' The proprietors rushed down to the office, terrified with
the thought that, by accident, the 'London Journal' had been sewn
up with _Punch_, and it took a lot of explanation in Mark Lemon's
best manner to make them see the joke in its right light. The
success of the experiment was immediate. Thackeray was supposed to
have perpetrated the burlesque imitation, but Thackeray knew
nothing whatever about it, though, as I have since learnt, he was
greatly tickled by it and, subsequently, was personally most kind
to the 'New Boy,' as he called me, on the _Punch_ Staff."
The illusion was complete, and the fun most apt and full of spirit. The
various artists ("Phiz," Charles Keene, Mr. du Maurier, and Sir John
Millais) each drew a picture for it, in every case burlesquing his own
style and trotting out his peculiarities. The public laughed
heartily--first, at itself for having been deceived by the
verisimilitude to the "London Journal," and then at the work upon its
merits; and "Mokeanna, or the White Witness" became the talk of the
hour, and one of the good things of _Punch_. Charles Dickens was among
those who most admired the execution of the _jeu d'esprit_, and he
displayed considerable interest in the writer.
In due time Mr. Burnand was called to the Table. "My first appearance,"
he tells me, "was at the Inn at Dulwich where _Punch_ sometimes dined in
the summer in those days. Thackeray drove there, and left early. He had
come on purpose to be present on this occasion, and before quitting the
room he paused, placed his hand on my shoulder, and said, 'Gentlemen, I
congratulate you on the "New Boy!"' I felt, and probably looked, very
hot and uncomfortably proud; and then he shook me warmly by the hand."
Mr. Burnand's next success--a phenomenal success, too, on which his
reputation as a humorist will stand unshaken--was "Happy Thoughts." For
popularity and for immediate advantage to the paper this clever series,
with its exquisite fooling and keen appreciation of humour, was second
only to the "Caudle Curtain Lectures," and among the greatest hits that
_Punch_ has ever made. It has since been admirably translated into
French by M. Aurelien de Courson under the title of "Fridoline!"--"happy
thought!" being, however, somewhat inadequately rendered "ingénieuse
pensée!" Then followed his imitations of popular writers--including
"Strapmore," by "Weeder," and "One-and-three," by "Fictor Nogo"--"Happy
Thought Hall," with illustrations by himself, "More Happy Thoughts,"
"Out of Town," and many others, which are still to be found on the
bookstalls. His, too, was the song "His 'Art was true to Poll," which
achieved so great a success when Mrs. John Wood introduced it into "My
Milliner's Bill" many years after it first appeared in _Punch_.
And in addition to the mass of work he has contributed to _Punch_, there
are "The Incompleat Angler," "The New History of Sandford and Merton,"
"The Real Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," more than a hundred
burlesques--beginning with his exceedingly popular perversion of
Jerrold's "Black-Eyed Susan"--and a number of comedies and adaptations:
a total rivalling, and in some cases surpassing, the industry of the
most hard-working of his predecessors in _Punch's_ editorial chair.
Moreover, he has been a lecturer with "realistic notions," as he proved
on the occasion when he was giving a public reading dealing with a
yachting cruise, and, as he stood behind his reading-desk, stooped and
rose with a regular maritime motion, relieved by an occasional roll,
until the more susceptible among his audience began seriously to ask
themselves if they were good enough sailors to sit out the reading to
its ground-swell, breezy end.
In August, 1880, after the death of Tom Taylor, Mr. Burnand, who had
been acting-editor in his last illness, was called upon to take up the
task of restoring to _Punch_ its ancient reputation for liveliness and
fun, and with a dinner to every contributor, outside as well as Staff,
the proprietors inaugurated the new era. Mr. Burnand at once made great
changes among the outside contributors, and introduced new blood upon
the Staff. For himself, he showed his chief strength as a punster of
extraordinary ability; probably no one before him ever tied so many and
such elaborate knots in his mother-tongue as he. "Mr. Burnand's puns are
generally good, and sometimes very good," said a critic in the
"Spectator;" "but they are really too plentiful.... When it comes to be
a question of a volume of four hundred pages, with an average of ten
puns to a page, the reader is likely to suffer from an indigestion ...
a cake that is all plums is likely to lie rather heavily on the person
who eats it." But he was constrained to admit artistic merit in the
humour of such passages as this: "There was a dead pause in the room.
How long it had been there it was impossible to say, for it was only at
this minute that the three became aware of it. And the Bishop sniffed
uncomfortably, as though there was something wrong with the drainage."
But there was something of greater import brought in by Mr. Burnand's
editorship than the literary tone. It was tolerance, political and
religious, and wider sympathy than had lately been the case. The heavy
political partisanship of Tom Taylor gave way to the more beneficent
neutrality of Mr. Burnand--a personal neutrality, at least, even though
Whig proclivities still coloured the cartoons to a certain, yet not
unreasonable degree. And a larger religious tolerance and warmer
magnanimity developed in _Punch_, such as comes chiefly from quarters
where oppression has been known.
So he who has been called "the Commandant of the Household Brigade of
British Mirth" has marched gaily along in _Punch's_ service for more
than thirty years. Prodigal of his jokes, he sometimes makes the best of
them outside the pages of his paper. Thus in November, 1893, he wrote to
the press in contradiction of the statement made by a police-court
prisoner named Burnand, that he was the brother of the editor of
_Punch_: "I beg to say that I have no brother, and never had any
brother. I have two half-brothers (this man is neither of them), but two
half-brothers don't make one whole brother." And people chuckled as the
little joke was copied from one paper to another all over the
English-speaking world, and applauded the excellent quaintness of
_Punch's_ Aristophanes. So, when a fictitious dinner of the _Punch_
Staff at Lord Rothschild's was reported in the press, Mr. Burnand
briefly dismissed the matter with the remark that the only dish
was--_canard_.
Again, in the autumn of 1894, when he fell ill, alarming reports were
spread. One of his colleagues on the Staff received a request for a
column obituary notice of the dying man from the editor of a leading
daily newspaper. But Mr. Burnand was much better, and was greatly
cheered on learning the particulars. "Really," he said, "that's more
than I expected. A column! Why, that's what they gave to Nelson and the
Duke of York!"
Mr. J. Priestman Atkinson's literary achievements in _Punch_ are spoken
of in the chapter where "Dumb Crambo's" pictorial contributions are
treated. From August, 1877, to October, 1880, they are frequent, and
consist for the most part of fanciful verse accompanied by cuts from the
same hand. There is a charming prose story, however, in the Pocket-Book
for 1879, seasonably entitled "The Invention of Roast Goose." But with
Mr. Burnand's editorship Mr. Atkinson's energies were exclusively
concentrated on humorous sketches and "Dumb Crambo" eccentricities.
In 1864 Mr. John Hollingshead--"Practical John"--was dramatic critic of
the "Daily News." His notices attracted the attention of Shirley Brooks,
with the result that he was invited to contribute to _Punch_. But it was
in 1881 that he was taken on the salaried outside Staff, writing for the
paper for several years, chiefly on the subject of social reform. He is
the inventor, to whom Londoners should be grateful, of "Mud-Salad
Market" and the "Duke of Mudford;" and the "Gates of Gloomsbury," "The
Seldom-at-Home Secretary," and "The Top of the Gaymarket," are also his.
It was with his pen that _Punch_ attacked so lustily our licensing
system--or want of system; and from him, too, came the burlesque
"Schopenhauer Ballads," and other contributions, which, many of them,
have been reprinted in "Footlights," "Plain English," and "Niagara
Spray."
In the same year came Mr. R. F. Sketchley, late Librarian of the Dyce
and Forster collection in the South Kensington Museum, who was destined
to become one of _Punch's_ Staff officers. "I find," he writes, "that I
became a contributor to _Punch_ in 1864. At the beginning of 1868 I was
honoured with an invitation from Mark Lemon to join the Table. I served
also under his successors--Shirley Brooks, Tom Taylor, and Burnand; and
finally retired of my own accord in 1880. I have seen it stated that in
an illness of Shirley Brooks I did some of the 'Essence of Parliament.'
If I had been called on to take up the pen of that most brilliant man of
letters, I should have been in despair. All I did was to turn the
Queen's Speech on the opening of Parliament into verse.
[Illustration: R. F. SKETCHLEY.
(_From a Photograph by Hills and Saunders, Oxford._)]
"I was never a prominent member of the Staff, but I am, and always shall
be, proud of having been connected with _Punch_. I wrote both prose and
verse--more of the former than the latter--and my contributions ranged
in extent from a column down to a single line. My subjects were
generally 'topical,' sometimes 'imaginary,' and the verse included a
good many parodies." Mr. Sketchley, it should be observed, is one of the
few members of the inside Staff--at least, within the last forty
years--who have ever resigned their appointments, Richard Doyle, Mr.
Henry Silver, and Mr. Harry Furniss being the others. His strong point
was prose parody, the best, perhaps, being the quaint quasi-Gulliverian
sketch called "A Fortnight in Sparsandria," which he contributed to
_Punch's_ Pocket-Book. Sober in judgment and wise in counsel, he was
greatly missed when his genial companionship was lost to _Punch's_
Knights of the Round Table.
Passing over Mr. W. S. Gilbert's connection with the paper--which is
described in the section devoted to artistic contributors--we find
another humorist, equally distinguished, who identified himself with the
paper the same year, Charles F. Browne, better known as "Artemus Ward."
He had arrived in England early in the year, and soon after his arrival
he was invited by Mark Lemon to contribute. Ward was at that time in
failing health, and, according to his secretary and manager Mr.
Kingston, two or three of the papers produced in accordance with the
understanding that was entered into were written with painful
effort--the reason, no doubt, why so little of his usually rollicking
humour is to be found in them. Nowadays many Americans profess to regard
_Punch_ with a sort of scornful amusement, and "Life," with an
assumption of lofty disdain, is for ever sneering at it as a survival of
the unfittest; and the same line is taken in England by New Journalists
and Newer Critics. Not that the New American Journalist was unknown in
Ward's day. He had already declared that "Shakespeare wrote good plase,
but he wouldn't have succeeded as the Washington correspondent of a New
York daily paper. He lacked the reckisit fancy and imagination." Anyhow,
he did not live so near to the _fin de siècle_; nor was he ashamed to
own that for years it had been his pet ambition to write for the "London
Charivari." Unhappily, its realisation came too late to permit him to do
justice to his talent and his humour; and he himself was only too
conscious of his sad shortcoming, or, rather, of his failing powers.
Only eight papers had come from his hand when it closed in death. In
September the first of his papers was published--"Personal
Recollections;" the last in November--"A Visit to the British Museum;"
they are garrulous and discursive, and a good deal of the humour they
contain was repeated from earlier works. That they should have contained
any at all, under the circumstances, is the wonder; indeed, one is
irresistibly reminded by them of his own humorous reference to one of
the burlesque "pictures" illustrative of his "Lecture." "It is by the
Old Masters," he said, in his quaint, sad way; "it is the last thing
they did before dying. They did this, and then they died."
[Illustration: "ARTEMUS WARD."
(_From a Photograph by S. A. Walker._)]
It is, indeed, curious how many of _Punch's_ most valued contributors
were working for the paper up to within a few hours, a few minutes, of
being called away--Jerrold, Thomas Hood, C. H. Bennett, John Leech,
Shirley Brooks, and Artemus Ward; and many a time have the public
laughed aloud at jokes and pictures wrought when the hand was stiffening
in death, when the brain that had imagined them had already ceased to
think.
[Illustration: H. SAVILE CLARKE
(_From a Photograph by the Woodburytype Company._)]
H. Savile Clarke, previously a "Fun" contributor, and a disciple of
James Hannay, made his _Punch_ début with a set of verses in August,
1867; but he did not follow them up, except in a very small way, until
Mr. Burnand's editorship, in 1880, encouraged him to write regularly.
This he soon began to do, his main work being Society verse, mostly
bearing on medical and scientific subjects, for he was brought up as a
doctor. "Songs of the Sciences," "Lyrics in a Library" (verse on books),
verse on the minor picture exhibitions, clever trifles like the "Carmen
Culinarium" (December, 1891), and the important and strikingly able and
successful parody, "Modern Life in London, or Tom and Jerry Back Again,"
illustrated by Mr. Priestman Atkinson--these formed the staple of his
_Punch_ work. But he was not enthusiastic about writing for the paper,
as the chance of gaining reputation by unsigned contributions was very
small. "I feel strongly," he wrote to me years ago, "as many writers do
on the paper, as to the inequality of authors and artists. It keeps very
good men off it."
"Berkeley Square, 5 p.m." was a poem of five stanzas that formed
Frederick Locker-Lampson's sole contribution to _Punch_; it was
published at the same time as Savile Clarke's maiden effort (August,
1867), and was illustrated by Mr. du Maurier. It was Locker-Lampson, it
may here be mentioned, who sent in C. S. Calverley's ewe-lamb--a
charade--to _Punch's_ pages.
On the 25th of July, 1868, a lady-contributor made her début in
_Punch's_ pages. This was Miss M. Betham-Edwards, who was already well
known as the authoress of "A Winter with the Swallows," and whose travel
"Through Spain to the Sahara," dealing with much the same scene, was
then expected from the press. In the earlier part of the year a friend
had shown to Mark Lemon a clever skit by the young lady, and the Editor
forthwith commissioned her to write a series of papers to be called
"Mrs. Punch's Letters to her Daughter"--a sort of belated sequel to
Jerrold's "Punch's Letters to his Son." These letters, which ran through
six numbers--the last in November 7th of the same year--are
contributions of the worldly-wise order, cynical, satirical, and shrewd.
Two years later Mark Lemon died, and Miss Betham-Edwards dropped out of
the outside Staff position which she was by courtesy supposed to occupy.
Certain contributions she sent in were returned; she took the hint, and
the connection was severed.
It was about this time that Mr. du Maurier wrote his admirable "Vers
Nonsensiques," and proved the literary talent which he afterwards
displayed in so striking a manner in his lecture on "Social Satire" and
in his novels. But, as has already been pointed out in several other
cases, he is not by any means alone in having used both pen and pencil
in the paper. Thackeray is the principal example of the twin-talent; but
others, in very various degrees, are Cuthbert Bede, Watts Phillips,
Thomas Hood (a single cut, and a wonderful one, too), Richard Doyle (a
single contribution), John MacGregor, with Sir John Tenniel, and Messrs.
Alfred Thompson, Ashby-Sterry, W. S. Gilbert, W. Ralston (one literary
effort), J. Priestman Atkinson, J. H. Roberts (one poem), Harry Furniss
(a dramatic criticism), and Arthur A. Sykes. As a rule, however, artist
and author has kept strictly within his own field, although a bold
experiment of a curious kind was once proposed. On that occasion the
literary Staff had been complaining, with malicious frankness,
that the drawings in a certain issue--(it is not necessary to
particularise)--were not up to the mark. They were at once challenged by
the artists, who declared that they would strike--that _they_ would do
the text, and allow the literary men to do the pictures. The idea was
seized upon; the result, they thought, would be screamingly funny. But
the Editor would not hear of it; he imagined, not without reason, that
the public, who would be called upon (but would probably decline) to
pay, would not see the point of the joke. Years after a similar
discussion arose; and those who heard it are not likely to forget the
mock-philosophic-gastronomic blank verse composed by Mr. Sambourne on
the spur of the moment just to illustrate how very easy clever
verse-writing really is.
Whilst _Punch_ has been greatly indebted for much of its humour to
Scotsmen, several Irishmen also have contributed not a little to its
success. Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves is one of these, although it is long
since he wrote for the paper. "I contributed to _Punch_" he says,
"during Shirley Brooks's editorship. Tom Taylor was then secretary to
the Local Government Board, and I was private secretary to the
Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Home Office, Mr. Winterbotham.
Meeting on business, we struck up a friendly acquaintance, and, _Punch_
being then a close borough, Taylor smuggled in verses and jokes of mine
for a while, till he thought I had established a claim to introduction
to Shirley Brooks. My work only went on from 1871 to 1874, as I became
so engaged on literary work of a severer kind, and educational work as
an Inspector of Schools, that I had not time for _Punch_; and when I
cared to return to it Taylor had gone, and the present Editor was
surrounded by fresh men, so I have not resumed my connection with it."
Mr. Graves--the author of the popular "Father O'Flynn," perhaps the best
of all his Irish songs--wrote for _Punch_ "The Tea-Table Tragedy," "The
Ballad of the Babes in the Wood," and those admirable "Lines of Farewell
to the Irish Humorist, Baron Dowse, on leaving the House of Commons"--
"Dick Dowse, Dick Dowse,
Is it lavin' the House?"
Then there is "On St. Patrick's Day falling on a Sunday," and in
_Punch's_ Pocket-Book the lines on "A Frog," and "A Cauliflower"--a
parody of "The green, immortal Shamrock." But another merit in Mr.
Graves was his coaching of Charles Keene on the subject of his Irish
jokes, for which the former was greatly responsible in the years of his
_Punch_ connection.
Nursery jingles newly adapted and applied to the morals and manners of
the day are always a favourite vehicle of satire with the public, and
have been freely used by professional humorists. _Punch_ offers many
instances of happy examples of the work. The first of a long series of
"Nursery Rhymes for the Times" was begun by Mr. Charles Smith Cheltnam
on January 9th, 1875, as well as in the Almanac of the same year. The
writer forthwith became a busy contributor. About fifty of these rhymes
appeared in _Punch_ in quick succession, and there were many other
pieces besides. "The Infallible Truth," a comment in verse on the
passage at arms which was then (November 13th, 1875) taking place
between Lord Redesdale and Dr. Manning on the subject of infallibility,
showed that _Punch's_ "papal aggression" was still rankling in his
bosom. Mr. Cheltnam remained a contributor until the death of Tom
Taylor, when he transferred his pen to the service of "Fun."
On April 1st, 1872, the Rev. F. D. Maurice died, and _Punch_ contained a
set of verses to his memory, in which the beauty and the strength of his
character were set forth with deep sympathy, and not without power or
poetical thought. They were from the hand of the Rev. Stainton Moses, of
Exeter College, Oxford, for seventeen years an assistant master at the
University College School. He was the editor of the leading London organ
of Spiritualism. The more ribald of his pupils and acquaintance declared
that his spiritualism was of another sort; but there is no doubt that he
was very popular with all men, and exercised great influence among the
faithful.
Eighteen years after the death of Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, his son,
Arthur W. à Beckett, restored the family name to _Punch's_ Staff. He had
been nominated to the War Office by Lord Palmerston, but he soon found
that he could walk in no other path but that which his father had
trodden. Like him, he became an editor at twenty, by assuming for a
space the direction, relinquished by Mr. F. C. Burnand, of an evening
paper called the "Glow-Worm"--whose light, after Mr. à Beckett left it,
steadily refused to burn with the requisite effulgence. Mark Lemon was
then approached; but he would have nothing to say to--or, rather,
nothing to do with--the sons of his old friend, who thereupon sought
elsewhere the encouragement they had hoped for in _Punch's_ show. Mr.
Arthur à Beckett started a satirico-humorous paper of great ability and
promise, the staff including himself and his brother, Matt Morgan,
Frederick Clay, and Frank Marshall, with Messrs. Alfred Thompson,
Austin, T. G. Bowles, and T. H. Escott--most of them Civil Servants. But
in the full tide of its success its financial foundations were weakened
by one in the managerial department, and the whole thing came to the
ground. After a few years of an active journalistic career he was
invited by Tom Taylor, who had succeeded to the command, to contribute
to _Punch_. A curious success attended his opening chapters. His first
paper on a "Public Office" (p. 226, Vol. LXVI.), as well as the twelve
following--that is to say, his contributions to thirteen consecutive
numbers--were all of them quoted in the "Times," though whether or not
through Taylor's intermediary did not appear. After the fourth number
Mr. à Beckett was put on the salaried Staff, and in August, 1875, was
invited to join the Table. Since Mr. Burnand's promotion to the
editorship Mr. à Beckett has acted as his _locum tenens_, just as
Shirley Brooks did to Lemon, and Percival Leigh to Brooks.
[Illustration: ARTHUR À BECKETT.
(_From a Photograph by A. Bassano, Limited._)]
Being called to the Bar in 1881, Mr. à Beckett was enabled to revive the
humours of his father's "Mr. Briefless," by the filial creation of the
happily-named "A. BRIEFLESS, Junior." The "Papers from Pump Handle
Court" from this self-sufficient, inflated, and utterly hopeless Junior,
have been a feature in _Punch_ for years past, and by them the author
has--so says an expert--"charmingly illuminated the legal profession by
his queer fancy." One of the best papers in the collection is an account
of a visit to the studio of a well-known firm of West-End photographers
in the character of a legal celebrity, which is wittily called "A Matter
in Camera." Up to December, 1894, he had contributed to a thousand and
eighty consecutive numbers, his work including many "series," besides
the usual topical subject-articles.
Mortimer Collins became an occasional, and by no means a prolific,
contributor of verse from the year 1874. The sonnet in _Punch_ on p.
237, Vol. XI. (December, 1846), has been ascribed to him, but there is
no ground for the statement (he would then have been only nineteen years
of age), nor did he contribute otherwise than from 1874 to 1876. His
light lyric touch may be traced in many a poem. In "Where shall we go?"
(p. 105, Vol. LXIX., September 11th, 1875) his dainty pen is to be
recognised; as in "Lady Psyche's Garden Party," and various other verses
of similar style and pleasant flavour. The attack on Mr. Whalley and
"Crede Byron" (July 20th, 1875) are his, and the verses on the Burnham
Beeches, and, in September, "Causidicus ad Canem." The charming "Sonnets
for the Sex" (June 17th, 1876) and, on July 8th, the humorous prose in
praise of goose-quill and sealing-wax, entitled "Mr. Oldfangle's
Opinion," were full of pleasing turns of thought--little presaging the
writer's death three weeks later. When he died, _Punch_ contained an
obituary notice of the writer (p. 57, Vol. LXXI., August 12th, 1876), in
which it is said, "He wrote the 'Secret of Long Life,' to teach men to
live a century, and himself died at forty-nine." He was in this respect
a curious echo of Thomas Walker, who wrote his "Art of Attaining High
Health" in his paper "The Original," and did not survive the completion
of his task; and the prototype of the Duke of Marlborough, who died
while engaged on an essay on the "Art of Living" for the "Nineteenth
Century." Had he lived, he would certainly have been promoted to the
Staff; and the fact that his funeral was officially attended by Tom
Taylor, Percival Leigh, and Mr. Arthur à Beckett, on behalf of _Punch_,
is testimony of the respect in which his co-operation was held.
The literary post on _Punch_ which corresponds with that of Chief
Cartoonist has for years past been occupied by Mr. Edwin J. Milliken.
The position is an onerous one, and carries great responsibility with
it. He who fills it is at once "the _Punch_ Poet" _par excellence_ and
the big drum, so to speak, of the political orchestra. For many years
Mr. Milliken has written the letterpress explanatory of the Cartoon,
either in verse or prose, as well as the preface to each succeeding
volume. To his pen, too, we have owed during the same period those
verses which it has been the graceful practice of _Punch_ to devote to
the memory of distinguished men. Remarkable for their tact, dignity, and
good-sense--instinct with lofty thought and deep feeling--these poems
are often masterpieces of their kind, models of taste and generous
sympathy. In particular, those published upon the deaths of Lord
Beaconsfield, John Bright, and Lord Tennyson, may be remembered as
worthy of the men they were designed to honour, as well as for the
felicity with which they set down what was in the heart of the nation,
and the eloquence with which its sentiment was expressed.
On January 2nd, 1875, there appeared in _Punch_ some lines entitled "A
Voice from Venus," the planet's transit having at that time just
occurred. They were Mr. Milliken's first contribution--a bow drawn at a
venture--for he was entirely unknown to anyone connected with the paper.
Tom Taylor asked for a guarantee of the originality of the verses--in
itself a flattering distrust--and, receiving the necessary assurance,
printed them forthwith. From that time forward the young writer
contributed with regularity, and for two years was put severely through
his paces by the Editor, who, in order to "try his hand," as he said,
gave him every sort of work to do. Then came a personal interview of a
gratulatory nature, in which Taylor promised to invite Mr. Milliken to
the Table as soon as a vacancy occurred. At the end of the second year
of probation this promise was fulfilled, and early in 1877 "E. J. M."
cut his initials on the board.
It is worthy of remark that the successful career of Mr. Milliken is in
direct opposition to his training, for he began life, much against his
will, as a man of business in a great engineering firm. But literature
was his goal, and the appreciation of the editors of a few magazines and
journals to some extent satisfied his ambition. In point of fact, Mr.
Milliken, in respect to his work, is the most modest and retiring of
men; and the only contribution to which his name appeared, for years
before or after, was the set of memorial verses to Charles Dickens which
were printed in the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1870.
[Illustration: E. J. MILLIKEN.
(_From a Photograph by Messrs. Bassano._)]
Without a doubt "The 'Arry Papers" are the most popular and best known
of Mr. Milliken's contributions, although "Childe Chappie's Pilgrimage,"
"The Modern Ars Amandi" (1883), "The Town" (1884), "Fitzdotterel; or,
T'other and Which" (a parody of Lord Lytton's "Glenaveril"), 1885;
"Untiled; or, the Modern Asmodeus" (1889-90), and "The New Guide to
Knowledge," have successively loomed large in _Punch's_ firmament. But
it is the great creation of 'Arry for which Mr. Milliken is most
applauded--and least understood. It is generally supposed that the 'Arry
of Mr. Milliken corresponds to the similar character conceived by
Charles Keene and Mr. Anstey. But the author means him for a great deal
more. 'Arry with him is not so much a personage as a type--as much an
impersonal symbol as Mr. Watts's Love, or Death, or other quality,
passion, or fate, without individuality and, in spirit at least, without
sex.
It is often suggested that Mr. Milliken's 'Arry is the survival--or, at
least, the descendant--of the "gent" of Leech and the "snob" of
Thackeray and Albert Smith. He is nothing of the sort. The gent and the
snob had at least this merit; they aspired, or imagined themselves, to
be something more and better than they really were. But 'Arry is a
self-declared cad, without either hope or desire, or even thought, of
redemption. Self-sufficient, brazen, and unblushing in his irrepressible
vulgarity, blatant and unashamed, he is distinguished by a sort of
good-humour that is as rampant and as offensive as his swaggering
selfishness, his arrogant familiarity and effrontery, and his sensuous
sentiment. He is a mean-souled and cynical camp-follower of the army of
King Demos, every day expanding, every day more objectionable in his
insolent assurance. Originally designed as an illustration of the
'Arryism of the rougher classes, then promoted to be characteristic of
the low sort of shop-lad and still lower kind of mechanic "with views"
of a clear-cut kind within the narrow limits of his materialistic
philosophy, he has developed into a type of character--almost, indeed,
into a type of humanity. And as 'Arryism is rife in every walk of
society, so 'Arry's experiences have become more informed, but not for
that reason more cultivated or more refined. And therein lies the one
inevitably weak point of Mr. Milliken's invention. Like Frankenstein, he
seems to have created a Monster, who has outgrown the purpose he was
originally intended to serve. For when he finds himself considering the
'Arryism of the "upper classes," he is bound, by his otherwise admirable
convention, to retain the Cockney slang of which he is such a master,
even though the speaker is supposed to have advanced so far in his views
and knowledge of life as to be able to discuss matters of art, science,
and literature. For, be it observed, a bank-'oliday at the Welsh 'Arp,
"wich is down 'Endon wy," is no longer a spree for him, however
uproarious the "shindy," and however ready his "gal" may be to sit on
his knee and "change 'ats" to the accompaniment of cornet and
concertina. He travels--on the cheap, of course--but still he travels,
and discusses Venus of Milo, and 'Igh Art, and the philosophic questions
of the "dy," and resolves all his meditations into the "motter" that
"Socierty's all right." Without soul, without ideality, without
aspiration, save of the baser sort, he represents no good quality nor
redeeming virtue but physical health--the promise, it may at least be
hoped, of a posterity that in the future, perchance, may justify his
existence. He is the raw, the offensively raw, material from which
respectable and useful descendants may eventually be made. At present
Mr. Milliken shows the 'Arryism that is permeating and fouling all
classes, almost to the highest; but there the convention fails--only
because it _is_ a convention--for 'Arry is made to fill the part which
has more recently, and perhaps with greater fitness, been accorded to
the Bounder.[46]
But, apart from the satirical creation, 'Arry is a most amusing
personage--his forms of speech, the quaint turns of his vulgar thought,
being in themselves irresistibly laughable--their grossness merged in
their genuine humour, and in the art so well concealed. 'Arry alone has
stamped Mr. Milliken as a satirical humorist of the front rank, and has
gone far towards making the public forget his other phase--the graceful
and sympathetic poet. The philologists, too, proclaim their debt of
gratitude to the author as the most complete collector of modern English
slang, with suitable context and situation. Dr. Murray's great "New
English Dictionary" accepts 'Arry as a name "used humorously for: A
low-bred fellow (who drops his _h's_) of lively temper and manners,"
and quotes "'Arry on 'Orseback" in _Punch's_ Almanac for 1874 as his
début in print. And, finally, Herr C. Stoffel, of Nijmegen, has
published a philological volume on the "'Arry Letters" in _Punch_, from
1883 to 1889, examining the cant words with the utmost elaboration,
gravity, and knowledge, and producing one of the most valuable treatises
on the subject that have hitherto been published.
In addition to the work already indicated, Mr. Milliken (as shown in the
chapter on cartoons) devotes a great deal of attention to the devising
of Mr. Punch's "big cuts," both for Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Linley
Sambourne. The Almanac double-page cartoons, too--usually very elaborate
designs--have been planned by him for a good many years, as well as most
of Mr. Sambourne's fanciful calendars and "months" in the Almanacs. It
will thus be seen that--with all his work in prose and verse, from a
paragraph to a preface, and from a series to an epigram--Mr. Milliken is
Writer-of-all-work and "General Utility" in the best sense; and a more
loyal and devoted servant _Punch_ has never had.
[Illustration: GILBERT À BECKETT
(_From a Photograph by Messrs. Bassano._)]
Alfred Thompson's work, which began in 1876, is considered with that of
_Punch's_ artists. Then came Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, who after a short
spell of regular work was summoned to the Table. His first contribution
had, in fact, been published by Mark Lemon, but immediately afterwards
that Editor treated him just as he had treated his brother; and not for
some years did he receive the call. Tom Taylor it was who, attracted by
the quality of the work which the brothers were doing elsewhere, sent
the coveted invitation.[47] In 1879--five years after his brother
Arthur--Gilbert à Beckett joined the salaried Staff, and three years
later he was appointed to the Table. He had a very quaint humour and a
wonderfully quick and startling sense of the incongruous. He was sadly
hampered by his affliction, but he was an accomplished, high-principled,
sensitive fellow, of whom one of his companions declared that "he was
the purest-minded man I ever knew." Under more favourable conditions of
health he would probably have made a greater mark; but as it was, he did
good work. He was a happy parodist, and a very neat and smart
versifier--at the age of fifteen he had gained the prize for English
verse at Westminster, which was open to the whole school--and in the
wildly absurd yet laughable vein of his bogus advertisements (of which
he did many under the head of "How we Advertise Now"--a continuation of
Jerrold's early idea) none of his _Punch_ brethren could touch him. He
was, perhaps, best known to the world as part author of the famous
political burlesque of "The Happy Land;" less, perhaps, as part author
of "The White Pilgrim;" and least of all as a musical composer, as it
was under the pseudonym of "Vivian Bligh" that he put forth his songs
and his music for the "German Reeds' Entertainment." But his work on
_Punch_ was always relished, and, considering his sad physical
afflictions, he held his own on the Staff. He contributed both prose and
verse, smart and apt of their kind. He wrote--in part, at least--the
admirable parody of a boy's sensational shocker (p. 119, Vol. LXXXII.,
March 11th, 1882). With the exception of this and the comical
"Advertisements" he did very few "series," but his contributions were
always varied and excellent in their way, and himself appreciated as a
useful and clever man. Perhaps his chief claim to recollection was his
suggestion, as explained elsewhere, of the famous cartoon of "Dropping
the Pilot." The Dinners were his greatest pleasure, and he attended them
with regularity, although the paralysis of the legs--the result of
falling down the stairway of Gower Street Station--from which he
suffered (in common with his uncle Sir William à Beckett, and with one
of the Mayhew brothers as well) rendered his locomotion and the
mounting of Mr. Punch's stairway a matter of painful exertion. Although
he did useful work for _Punch_, he never became a known popular
favourite; yet when he died--on October 15th, 1891--a chorus of
unanimous regret arose in the press, for he was one of those few men who
count none but friends among their wide circle of acquaintance.
[Illustration: "Punch's" Family Trees.
(NOTE.--The names of the workers for _Punch_ are printed in capitals.)]
Mr. Horace Frank Lester, late of Oxford University, afterwards
barrister-at-law, author and journalist of the first rank, but at that
time unknown to _Punch_, first appeared on January 5th, 1878, with a
slashing satire on busybody amateur statesmen which greatly tickled Tom
Taylor's fancy. But his first real hit was in September, 1880, with a
form of contribution then comparatively new. It was a "Diary of the
Premier at Sea," when Mr. Gladstone was on board the _Grantully Castle_,
and, so far from "husbanding his energies," as his doctor directed, was
supposed to receive deputations, make speeches, convert the
man-at-the-wheel from Toryism, and try to cut down the mainmast with his
axe. Then followed political diaries, parodies (such as "'The Entire
History of Our Own Times' by Jestin Machearty," and innumerable poems),
comic Latin verse, "Journal of a Rolling Stone," "Advice Gratis," "Queer
Queries," legal skits, and so on. An amusing incident occurred in
respect to one of the "Advice Gratis" series. Mr. Lester had spoken of a
mythical book called "Etiquette for the Million: or, How to Behave Like
a Gentleman on Nothing a Year, _published at this Office_." A corporal
stationed at Galway Barracks wrote and asked for the price of it, "as I
am extremely anxious to have the book referred to." Mr. Burnand's reply
was simply, "_Sold_."
FOOTNOTES:
[44] Lord Ellenborough.
[45] See p. 85.
[46] I have been fortunate in ascertaining Mr. Milliken's own estimate
of 'Arry in a private letter to a friend. Although it was not written
for publication, I have received permission to quote the following
sentences:--
"'Arry--as you say--the essential _Cad_, is really appalling. He is not
a creature to be laughed at or with. My main purpose was satirical--an
analysis of and an attack on the _spirit of Caddishness_, rampant in our
days in many grades of life, coarse, corrupting, revolting in all. I
might have confined myself to the 'Humours of 'Arry,' when my work would
have been more genial, and, to many, more attractive. But then I should
have missed my mark. On the other hand, I might have made it a more
realistic study, but then I should have got very few readers, and
certainly no place in the _Punch_ pages. So it was a compromise; not a
consistent study of an individual Cad, but of the various
characteristics of Caddishness. It has been said that an ordinary cad
could not have done or said or known all that my 'Arry did. Quite true,
quite well known to me while writing; and indeed I forestalled the
objection in the preface of the book.... As to 'Arry's origin, and the
way in which I studied him, I have mingled much with working men,
shop-lads, and would-be smart and 'snide' clerks--who plume themselves
on their mastery of slang and their general 'cuteness' and 'leariness.' I
have watched, listened, and studied for years 'from the life,' and I
fancy I've a good memory for slang phrases of all sorts; and my 'Arry
'slang,' as I have said, is very varied, and not scientific, though most
of it I have _heard_ from the lips of street-boy, Bank-holiday youth,
coster, cheap clerk, counter-jumper, bar-lounger, cheap excursionist,
smoking-concert devotee, tenth-rate suburban singer, music hall 'pro' or
his admirer," etc. etc.
[47] Connection with _Punch_ has run strangely in families--as the
reader may see by reference to the "Family Trees" on the next page.