The History of "Punch" Part 30

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 d.i.c.kens which were printed in the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1870.

[Ill.u.s.tration: E. J. MILLIKEN.

(_From a Photograph by Messrs. Ba.s.sano._)]

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, pa.s.sion, or fate, without individuality and, in spirit at least, without s.e.x.

It is often suggested that Mr. Milliken's 'Arry is the survival--or, at least, the descendant--of the "gent" of Leech and the "sn.o.b" of Thackeray and Albert Smith. He is nothing of the sort. The gent and the sn.o.b 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 a.s.surance. Originally designed as an ill.u.s.tration of the 'Arryism of the rougher cla.s.ses, 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 cla.s.ses," he is bound, by his otherwise admirable convention, to retain the c.o.c.kney 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 cla.s.ses, 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 grat.i.tude 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 debut 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GILBERT a BECKETT (_From a Photograph by Messrs. Ba.s.sano._)]

Alfred Thompson's work, which began in 1876, is considered with that of _Punch's_ artists. Then came Gilbert Arthur a 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 a 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 advertis.e.m.e.nts (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. Lx.x.xII., March 11th, 1882). With the exception of this and the comical "Advertis.e.m.e.nts" 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 a 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "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 a.n.a.lysis of and an attack on the _spirit of Caddishness_, rampant in our days in many grades of life, coa.r.s.e, 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.

CHAPTER XVII.

_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1880-94.

"Robert"--Mr. Deputy Bedford--Mr. Ashby-Sterry--Reginald Shirley Brooks--Mr. George Augustus Sala--Mr. Clement Scott--The "Times"

Approves--Mr. H. W. Lucy--"Toby, M.P."--Martin Tapper and Edmund Yates--Mr. George Grossmith--Mr. Weedon Grossmith--Mr. Andrew Lang's "Confessions of a Duffer"--Miss May Kendall--Miss Burnand--Lady Humorists--Mr. Brandon Thomas and Mr. Gladstone--Mr.

Warham St. Leger--Mr. Anstey--"Modern Music-hall Songs"--"Voces Populi"--Mr. R. C. Lehmann--Mr. Barry Pain--Mr. H. P. Stephens--Mr.

Charles Geake--Mr. Gerald Campbell--R. F. Murray--Mr. George Davis--Mr. Arthur A. Sykes--Rev. Anthony C. Deane--Mr. Owen Seaman--Lady Campbell--Mr. James Payn--Mr. H. D. Traill--Mr. A.

Armitage--Mr. Hosack--Arthur Sketchley--Henry J. Byron--_Punch's_ Literature Considered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN T. BEDFORD.

(_From a Photograph by E. J. Stoneham._)]

"Robert, the City waiter" made his low-comedy bow in 1880. "Robert's"

literary father is Mr. Deputy John T. Bedford, whose opportunities for studying the ways of the City waiter have necessarily been many and excellent. The result of his keen observation was introduced to _Punch_ through chance. "My introduction to _Punch_," Mr. Bedford informs me, "arose from the quite accidental circ.u.mstance that Mr. Burnand and myself were introduced at the same time, by Mr. F. Gordon, on the directorship of the 'Grand Hotel' at Charing Cross; and very shortly afterwards ... on the appointment of Mr. Burnand as Mr. Tom Taylor's successor, I ventured to congratulate him, when he said to me, 'If any fun is to be found in the City, I shall expect you to bring it to me.' I replied that I had sometimes thought that there was some to be got out of a City waiter, as waiters were not quite so deaf as was generally considered. I tried my hand, and my first attempt was very kindly received; it was printed on p. 64, Vol. LXXIX. (August 14th, 1880), under the t.i.tle of 'Notes from the Diary of a City Waiter.' ... There is no truth in the statement that Robert was based upon a certain waiter.

He is certainly imaginary"--a statement which disposes of the a.s.sertion that the famous old "c.o.c.k Tavern" is famous nowadays for the original of "Robert" in the person of its head-waiter. Since 1880 Mr. Deputy Bedford is to be credited with more than two hundred contributions, of which, however, only a proportion belong to the "Robert" series. "You will find some of them," writes Mr. Bedford, "signed J. Litgue, a _nom de plume_ that puzzled Mr. Burnand himself, until I revealed the secret that it was French for 'Bed-ford'; and he, with his excellent knowledge of French, was thoroughly sold." "Robert" has been republished in book form, and has attained an extraordinary circulation, though some of Mr.

Bedford's critics have declared that the chief attraction has been the admirable ill.u.s.trations by Charles Keene with which the little book is embellished. For severe critics there are; one of whom, in order to prove that "Robert" was not a humorous creation at all, took the curious course of translating one of his articles into good, well-spelt English, and then triumphantly asking--"Where is the humour now?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. ASHBY-STERRY (_From a Photograph by Samuel A. Walker._)]

A complete contrast to Mr. Bedford became a contributor to _Punch_ a fortnight after him--Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry. Twenty-nine years had pa.s.sed since his boyish drawings had been accepted; and during the interval he had relinquished the pencil for the pen, had become a well-known journalist, and the author of sundry volumes of light literature. He was one of the first to be summoned by the new Editor, and he responded n.o.bly to the call. Since August 28th, 1880, he has contributed as largely as any outsider to _Punch's_ pages. Innumerable picture-shows, new books, articles of all kinds, and countless verses of every description on every possible topic, with paragraphs long and short, are, so to speak, the _hors d'oeuvres_ of his contribution. Many series of poems and papers are his, of which the best-known is that of the "Lays of a Lazy Minstrel" (begun August 28th, 1880), with their riverside idylls and love-carols; but to his hand also are to be credited "Simple Stories for Little Gentlefolk," "Holiday Haunts, by Jingle Junior on the Jaunt," "Club Carols," "Uncle Bulger's Moral Tales," "Songs of the Streets," "Rambling Rondeaux," and "Paper-knife Poems." But it is his fluent, melodious, and unpretentious verse that has made him popular in _Punch_.

Reginald Shirley Brooks, the son of Mr. Burnand's brilliant predecessor, was working for _Punch_ in 1880, and the following year he was called to the Table, and remained there without much distinction until 1884. He wrote some smart papers, but his groove was not that of the sober and respectable Fleet Street Sage. He preferred wilder spirits, and he accordingly retired, taking with him the sympathy of his companions. He died soon after.

After the escapade of Mr. George Augustus Sala in respect to Alfred Bunn's quarrel with _Punch_ and the resultant "Word with Punch" of half a century ago (which was ill.u.s.trated by Mr. Sala's lively pencil, as is explained in another chapter), none would ever have thought that his pen would have been driven in _Punch's_ service. Lemon had declared him a "graceless young whelp," and nothing that Mr. Sala ever cared to do had tended to change that opinion. Shirley Brooks and Tom Taylor carried on the sentiment as a sort of dynastic vendetta, and Mr. Sala's name was kept on _Punch's_ Index Expurgatorius until the accession of Mr.

Burnand. _Punch_ was then no longer the close borough, and the new Editor sought talent where he could find it. He invited Mr. Sala to contribute, and the invitation has been responded to whenever anything "Punchy" has occurred to the writer--as in the rhymed travesty of Tennyson's opening verses of "The Princess." It is an amusing fact that on one occasion Mr. Sala contributed a skit on himself--felicitously ent.i.tled "_Egos_ of the Week"--with the startling and satisfactory result that one or two papers, taking the thing _au serieux_, commented on the fact, and expressed their pleasure that "at last Mr. George Augustus Sala has had the drubbing by _Punch_ he has so long and so richly deserved"!

Mr. Clement Scott, the _doyen_ of the dramatic critics, Civil Servant (like so many of the _Punch_ Staff), member of the clever band that nurtured "Fun" into life, and brother-in-law of Mr. du Maurier, also had to wait till Mr. Burnand was Editor before he was given the opportunity to write for _Punch_. "It struck him," writes Mr. Scott, "that he might mingle among the essentially comic pages an occasional poem that might ventilate some grievance in a pathetic manner or describe some heroic subject in the ballad style.... The first subject Burnand sent me was the overworked and underpaid clerks in London. It took my fancy, and in three hours after I received his letter I sent him 'The Cry of the Clerk!' To my intense surprise, the morning after it appeared in _Punch_ I found it quoted _in extenso_ in 'The Times'--an unusual honour. I believe Dr. Chinery the instant he read the poem clipped it out with his own scissors and said, 'I don't know if this has ever been done before, but we must quote the poem to-morrow morning.' The sub-editor was aghast, but the poem was printed as from _Punch_."

These verses, indeed, struck people's consciences, as Thomas Hood had struck them years ago with "The Song of the Shirt." It brought into relief the enforced "respectability" of the men who earn but a few shillings a week, and yet are supposed to be "above charity."

It was the last verse that most struck home:--

"Why did I marry? In mercy's name, in the form of my brother was I not born?

Are wife and child to be given to him, and love to be taken from me with scorn?

It is not for them that I plead, for theirs are the only voices that break my sorrow, That lighten my pathway, make me pause 'twixt the sad to-day and grim to-morrow.

The Sun and the Sea are not given to me, nor joys like yours as you flit together Away to the woods and the downs, and across the endless acres of purple heather.

But I've love, thank Heaven! and mercy, too; 'tis for justice only I bid you hark To the tale of a penniless man like me--to the wounded cry of a London Clerk!"

Then he took the part of the shop-girls who are never allowed to sit down ("Weary Womankind"); of the London children who cry for fresh air ("The Children's Cry"), and described as well many a deed of daring by sea and land, in which sailors, soldiers, engine-drivers, policemen, life-boatmen, and coastguardsmen were concerned. In his little volume of "Lays and Lyrics" nearly a score of these _Punch_ poems are republished.

The Parliamentary phase of _Punch_ is the one which has remained constant from the beginning of the paper. All else has been subject to change--the quality of its satire, the character of its literature, the intention of its art, and the cla.s.s of its humour. But in his attendance upon Parliament _Punch_ has been persistently a.s.siduous and consistently frank, neither awed by its majesty nor sickened by its follies.

Parliament has always been regarded in his pages in the spirit of benevolent patronage and control, which, though unquestionably pedagogic, has always been just and sympathetic in tone. It was in order to continue the chain forged by Shirley Brooks and Tom Taylor in their "Essence of Parliament," without the dropping of a link, that Mr.

Burnand's first Staff appointment was made with a view to filling the place that had been left vacant by Tom Taylor's death. His attention, like that of many others, had long been attracted to the brilliant weekly articles in the "Observer," ent.i.tled "From the Cross Benches"--papers that dealt with the week's Parliamentary proceedings with singular cleverness, humour, and originality--and at the proper moment he sought out the author of them, Mr. Henry W. Lucy, of the "Daily News."

Mr. Lucy had already graduated as the Pepys of Parliament; for he had been known in gallery and lobby of the House for the past ten years, and was acting as chief of the Parliamentary Staff for his paper. He was, therefore, considered particularly well-fitted for the new post on _Punch_, and he readily accepted the invitation. His first contribution was a sort of prospectus of Toby's Diary, which was published on January 8th, 1881. Thenceforward Mr. Lucy became known as "Toby, M.P.;" and when a puzzled Member of Parliament, familiar with his face, would occasionally ask him in the Lobby, "By the way, where are you member for?" he would answer "_Barks_" and pa.s.s on. It is not uncommon to find unregenerate members taking to themselves the credit of the witticisms which Toby puts into their mouths; so that there is perhaps excuse for the biographer of Lord Sherbrooke (Robert Lowe), who attributed to his subject the capital exclamation with which Mr. Lucy endowed him. When he saw a deaf member get his ear-trumpet into position in order to listen to a tedious orator, he remarked (according to Toby): "What a pity it is to see a man thus wasting his natural advantages!" And Lowe has had the credit of it ever since.

[Ill.u.s.tration: H. W. LUCY.

(_From a Photograph by Walery, Limited._)]

No one in the House knows its members so well as Mr. Lucy; no one out of it is so well acquainted with its procedure; and when for a short time he reluctantly filled the editorial chair of the "Daily News," he was unhappy till he got back to Toby's "kennel" in the gallery of the House of Commons.

But the Essence of Parliament as distilled by "Toby" is by no means the only, hardly even the most voluminous of Mr. Lucy's _Punch_ work. In the recess he is a constant contributor as Mr. Burnand's deputy in the character of _Punch's_ reviewer--"The Baron de Book-Worms," through whose personality "My Baronite" appears from time to time; while among his serial articles have been "The Letter-bag of Toby, M.P.," and the set of Interviews with Celebrities at Home, parodies of the "World's"

articles, which delighted none so much as Edmund Yates himself.[48] Mr.

Lucy joined the Table on his return from j.a.pan in 1884.

But it is as "Toby" that he has gained most of his popularity. He showed the way about the House of Commons to Mr. Harry Furniss; and, up to the withdrawal of the latter, his "Diary" was always ill.u.s.trated by that artist. Later on Mr. Edward J. Reed took the place Mr. Furniss resigned, and the pair continue to set before the world their humorous versions--perversions, it would be hardly fair to say--of Parliamentary proceedings. Mr. Lucy's touch is light and original, imparting an appearance of interest and entertainment to the dullest debate, and of verisimilitude to the most doubtful statements. Yet the "Diary" is not without its value as a record, while it remains an amusing commentary upon the work of the Session, and an entirely inoffensive caricature of the men and speeches with whom it deals.