The History of "Punch" Part 21

-------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+--------- Vol. | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | -- -------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+--------- VI. | -- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- VII. | 1-3/4|1-3/4|1 |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- VIII. | 4 | 3/4| 1/4|-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- IX. | 1-3/4| -- | 1/2|-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- X. | 9-1/4| -- | -- |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- XI. | 3/4| -- | -- |-- |2 | -- |-- | -- | -- XII. | -- | -- | -- |-- |1-3/4| -- |-- | -- | -- XIII. | -- | -- | -- |-- | -- | 4-3/4| 1/2| -- | -- XIV. | -- | -- | 3/4|-- | -- |51-1/2|-- |3-3/4| -- Total |17-1/2|2-1/2|3-1/4| 1/4|2 |12 | 1/2|3-3/4|2,931-1/4 -------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+--------- Average| -- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- per | | | | | | | | | volume | | | | | | | | | -------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+---------

[Ill.u.s.tration: MR. PUNCH'S FANCY BALL.

_Reduced from the Double-page Cartoon by John Leech (1847), showing the Staff of "Punch" as Orchestra._ (See next page.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: W. NEWMAN. RICHARD DOYLE. JOHN LEECH. W. M. THACKERAY.

HORACE MAYHEW. MARK LEMON. PERCIVAL LEIGH. GILBERT a BECKETT. TOM TAYLOR. DOUGLAS JERROLD.

(_Detail of Portraits of the Staff in "Mr. Punch's Fancy Ball."_)]

At no time was Lemon's position an easy one, for his team, brilliant as it was, was sometimes wont to jib, and even to kick over the traces, or, most serious of all, to fall ill; whereupon the fountain of inspiration and supply would immediately dry up. When one failed, another would have to be made to fill the s.p.a.ce; and all the while susceptibilities had to be nursed and respected as carefully as the well-being of the paper.

Thackeray would now and then send a letter of apology instead of his "copy," and Jerrold would fail for a week or two together; and then Gilbert a Beckett with important contributions, and Horace Mayhew with a ma.s.s of little ones, were the men who, in the early volumes, would rush quickly to the rescue. Lemon was patience itself--he had no alternative perhaps--and could humour his Staff just as their humour demanded, for he was a born diplomatist as well as editor. Moreover, he had an unerring instinct as to what should and what should not appear in the paper; not alone on the ground of "good taste," as it was then understood, but of public feeling. This invaluable quality was acknowledged by the rest of the Staff, and was probably the secret of Lemon's ability to retain his position so long and with so much dignity, and to impose his will--_suaviter in modo_ as was his habit--on men who would brook such imposition from no one else. It was his moral balance they admired--that judgment which in all his long career of satiric criticism kept him practically free from any action for libel after he had taken his share in piloting the paper through its sea of early troubles. He was watchful and discriminating, both as regards the contents of the paper and the discussions at the board--where he would smooth over such an occasional storm as might threaten, and be deaf to anything that a less skilful tactician than himself might have taken notice of. Nevertheless, Lemon could take his own part if occasion required, and face his opponents with all the vigour of his authority.

The Proprietors themselves once felt the strength of his character when they sought to challenge him on a vital point. Mark Lemon quickly a.s.sured himself of the support of his Staff, and, rising from his seat, he said in a tone of command, "Boys, follow me!" and made to leave the room. The struggle was over, and Lemon triumphed. Similarly did he make a _casus belli_ of the attempt of the Proprietors on his editorial rights and dignity, when he was requested to appear at their meeting instead of their attending in his room. And he went so far as to instal himself in a room on the other side of the way until his point was conceded. He was, on the whole, a consummate Editor, who could cater for all men, and yet keep his pages practically clean and irreproachable, and almost free from blunder; all the while enlisting for it more and more of popular sympathy, and daily increasing its influence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LID OF THE INKSTAND PRESENTED TO MARK LEMON BY THE MEMBERS OF HIS STAFF IN 1845.]

_Punch_ did not engage his exclusive energies. He was the first editor of the "Field." Then he edited the "London Journal," and in trying to improve its tone and quality of literature by the republication in its pages of the Waverley novels he well-nigh ruined it. These and other matters he embarked upon, together with a number of small works, such as his volume of "Prose and Verse" (which Jerrold said ought to have been called "Prose and Worse"), and his "Jest Book," on the strength of which, it is said, Hans Christian Andersen, when in England, sought an introduction to him and paid him the compliment of saying, "I am so glad to know you, Mr. Lemon--you are so full of comic!"

Moreover, Lemon acted as a sort of secretary to Herbert Ingram, whom he served with great tact. Ingram was a good deal identified with the _Punch_ circle, sometimes in a friendly and sometimes in a hostile way.

He was owner, before he sold it to William and Robert Brough, of "The Man in the Moon," _Punch's_ arch-enemy, and in later years he started the "Comic News," with Edmund Yates as editor, on purpose to oppose him. Yet several of the _Punch_ men, notably s.h.i.+rley Brooks, worked on his "Ill.u.s.trated London News," which was started in great measure to push "Parr's Life Pills" (these were constantly mentioned and sometimes attacked in _Punch_), and Douglas Jerrold found in him the capitalist for the "Illuminated Magazine." Mark Lemon it was who took several of his Staff down to Boston to speak for Ingram during his candidature, an expedition that was a greater electoral than oratorical success; and he again it was, so it is said, who persuaded Mr. Ingram to drop the "Comic News," so that _Punch_ might be rid of what was already a troublesome, and might have become a very damaging, rival.

With equal zeal and skill and genial friendliness to recommend him, Lemon became a great favourite in his own circle, for "Uncle Mark" was always ready to do his friends a good turn. In 1845 the Staff combined to present him with a silver inkstand--an interesting relic now in possession of Mrs. F. W. W. Topham, his daughter--a reproduction of the lid of which is here given; while the locket which, with a more substantial gift, was presented in 1866 to celebrate the Jubilee of _Punch_ (_i.e._ his fiftieth volume) and to mark the withdrawal of the Heads of the firm, was inscribed as follows: "To Mark Lemon from his old friends W. Bradbury and F. M. Evans, on their retirement, given at a dinner at Maidenhead, June 27th, 1866. Present--W. H. Bradbury, s.h.i.+rley Brooks, Wm. Agnew, G. du Maurier, F. C. Burnand, J. H. Agnew, C. H.

Bennett, John Tenniel, Horace Mayhew, F. M. Evans (Jim.), Henry Silver, T. Agnew (Jim.), Percival Leigh, Chas. Keene, Mark Lemon, Wm. Bradbury, F. M. Evans." There is no doubt that, as time went on, Lemon became more and more popular with his Staff, and each fresh appearance in _Punch_ of his jolly face under the low-crowned hat of John Bull, or the snow-sprinkled peak of Father Christmas, identified him more closely with the paper and endeared him to his workers. Yet they liked to "score off" him when they could, in return for the jokes he played on them. The story is told how, when he had run down for a few days' holiday by the sea, he received the paper by post, and, tearing off its cover, was horrified to find, not the cartoon they had agreed upon, but another, execrable in taste and vile in execution, while undoubted libels and other offences were sprinkled with hideous liberality about the pages.

Moreover, the cartoon was awry, the date was wrong, and a paragraph was upside down. Lemon turned cold all down his spine, and gasping "This comes from my being away!" he determined to return to town without the loss of a moment. From this point historians differ. Some say that Mark rushed to the station, quickly bought up every copy of the awful issue that was for sale, and jumped into the railway-carriage with the bundle; and that not before he was well on his way did he dare to open a copy to gaze again on the hideous production; and when he did--he rubbed his eyes, for everything was just as it should be! Then the light broke in upon him that he had been egregiously "sold," and he realised that a copy had been specially prepared for his pleasing edification! Other commentators a.s.sert that before Uncle Mark had time to leave for the station a telegram came, mercifully explaining a joke which, it was felt, ought not to be carried too far. The reader will remember a similar incident occurring in "Esmond;" and one wonders if the idea of that dummy copy of the "Spectator" was not suggested by the hour's torture lovingly inflicted upon the Editor of _Punch_ by his affectionate and respectful Staff.

Mark Lemon died on May 23rd, 1870. He had been very ill on one or two previous occasions; even as early as 1848 Jerrold had written to John Forster that "Lemon has been at Death's door--but has kept on the outside." For nine-and-twenty years he had been at the helm; and although he may not have been as paramount on _Punch_ as some aver, there can be no doubt that he entirely merited the compliment paid by Mr. Gladstone to his memory when, awarding a pension of 100 from the Civil List to Mrs. Lemon, he said that he had "raised the level of comic journalism to its present standard." The proprietors, with generous sympathy, recognising the immense services of their friend, at once set about making a collection for the widow and unmarried daughters (for Lemon had been unsuccessful in his investments and speculations) and, with the ready help of the Staff, prosecuted it with so much energy and goodwill that the sum of 1,500 was quickly raised.

He was lowered to rest in a coffin simply inscribed "Mark Lemon--Editor of _Punch_;" for in _Punch_ he had lived his life. "He believed," said Mr. Hatton, "in one G.o.d, one woman, one publication," as his surviving colleagues well knew. "If this journal," they wrote by the hand of s.h.i.+rley Brooks, "has had the good fortune to be credited with habitual advocacy of truth and justice, if it has been praised for abstinence from the less worthy kind of satire, if it has been trusted by those who keep guard over the purity of womanhood and of youth, we, the best witnesses, turn for a moment from our sorrow to bear the fullest and most willing testimony that the high and n.o.ble spirit of Mark Lemon ever prompted generous champions.h.i.+p, ever made unworthy onslaught or irreverent jest impossible to the pens of those who were honoured in being coadjutors with him." And in the poem that follows, testimony is borne that--

"... 'Twas his pride to teach us so to bear Our blades, as he bore his--keep the edge keen, But strike above the belt: and ever wear The armour of a conscience clear and clean."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRY MAYHEW.

_From a Photograph by Bedford, Lemere and Co., Strand, W.C._]

The character of Henry Mayhew, and his share in the production of _Punch_, have already been somewhat fully set forth. An old friend of his informs me that "he was lovable, jolly, charming, bright, coaxing, and unprincipled. He rarely wrote himself, but would dictate, as he walked to and fro, to his wife, whom he would also leave to confront his creditors. She was deeply attached to him; and when his father died, she found that the careful solicitor had left her a bequest of two pounds a week, payable to _herself_." And Postans, after he had lost his sight, would now and then exclaim--"Although he treated me so badly, I should love to hear the sound of his dear voice again!" There can be no doubt that Henry Mayhew was a genius, a fascinating companion, and a man of inexhaustible resource and humour--though humour was but one side of his brilliant mind. Indolence was his besetting sin; and his will was untutored.

"An admirable all-round talker," Henry Vizetelly wrote to me shortly before his death, "Henry Mayhew was br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with novel ideas on all manner of subjects, from artificial production of diamonds to the reformation of ticket-of-leave men. He was constantly planning some new publication or broaching novel ideas on the most out-of-the-way subjects. He would scheme and ponder all the day long, but he abominated the labour of putting his ideas into tangible shape. He would talk like a book on any subject for hours together if he could only find listeners, but could with difficulty be brought to put pen to paper. Most of his books were written from his ideas by his younger brother Augustus, or were dictated directly to his wife, who acted as his amanuensis.

Although he made considerable sums by his writings, he never seemed to have a s.h.i.+lling; and most of the letters he received were from dunning creditors. These missives, however, never troubled him, for he never broke the envelopes of one of them, but handed all his correspondence over to his wife to do as she pleased with and answer such letters as she thought necessary. He was very temperate. Whether he smoked as a young man, I am not aware; but he never smoked at the periodical evening gatherings at his house, when the guests could hardly see each other for the clouds of tobacco-smoke. On these occasions the most abstruse subjects were often discussed, and all we young wiseacres present contributed our modic.u.m of knowledge towards the elucidation of problems that sorely perplexed the thinkers of the epoch. Although Mayhew would sit up till any hour as long as anyone would stay and listen to him, he never allowed this to interfere with his early-rising habits."

The impression made by Mayhew upon his contemporaries was invariably such as to command respect for his intellectual capacity. Considering his deep, philosophic mind, says one critic, if his lines had been cast in more serious places, he might have been a sociologist, the equal of John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer. There is proof enough of this in that wonderful encyclopaedic work of "London Labour and London Poor,"

which displayed his original mind and his power of research, as much as other books displayed his marvellous invention, fancy, and initiative, and it is the only one of his undertakings which he had perseverance enough to carry through to a triumphant conclusion--so far as it can claim finality. It was while he was engaged on this work that Landells (according to a private letter) visited him and found him, in company with his brother Augustus and William Jerrold, interviewing a "coster"--"drawing him," while Horace Mayhew took down everything the man said.

Such was the man who conceived _Punch_ as it came to be, and who wrote of it when it was established, "I smell lots of tin thereabouts; but our Lemon requires a great deal of squeezing." What was his connection with _Punch_, how he agreed with Lemon as to the transfer to Bradbury and Evans, how he found himself replaced by (or, as he considered, outwitted by) Mark Lemon in the editors.h.i.+p has already been recited. Nevertheless, he was retained as "Suggestor-in-Chief"--an office which suited him well enough, considering his hatred of the drudgery of writing.

"Mr. Henry Mayhew," writes _Punch's_ ex-Printer, "the special joke-provider for _Punch_, was a most jocular character. He would stand beside the compositor while he was working at his case, and closely watch every movement of his hand in picking up each letter.

He said he could not make out how ever the compositor could keep the alphabetical order of each box in his memory. So to master the mystery he set to work and learned the boxes for himself, and would often find amus.e.m.e.nt, when waiting for a proof, in setting up a few lines, very slowly at first, but, s.h.i.+fting the composing rule and thoughtlessly laying down the stick the wrong way, generally upset all his work, and so he gave it up in despair. This Mr. Mayhew was very clever in creating and roughly sketching out many of the small comic column ill.u.s.trations, and would write the witty inscriptions for them. These would then go to the artist, who sketched out the idea and so completed it. In _Punch_, as in many other similar works, the mind to invent the idea caricatured, and the hand that pencils it, belong to two very different persons and capacities.

Mr. Mayhew was very clever in this way, and anything of a comic nature he saw he would at once sketch off and then have a cut made of it. Most of the inimitable cuts in the first few volumes of _Punch_ are of his invention. He was always sketching and taking rough notes of everything he saw. The great John Leech called him his indispensable 'Jack-all, or broad-grin provider.'"

In spite of his disappointment, Henry Mayhew remained with _Punch_ until 1845. His last literary contribution--"A Shaksperean Nursery Rhyme," on the subject of Macready playing Shakespeare in Paris before Louis Philippe and Prince de Joinville--appeared in February of that year; but he still attended the Dinners and made suggestions for cartoons, of which twelve were accepted in that year. With his proposal, however, of the cartoon of "Don Roebucis," which was drawn by Leech (14th March, 1846), his last word was said; and from that time forward his connection with _Punch_ ceased absolutely. He had given the paper its character and tone; he had suggested its first great success, the Almanac; he had supported its transfer, whereby it was firmly established; and he had cracked its biggest joke--the joke which is universally quoted to this very day.[33] He died in 1887, at the age of 75, and his old friend celebrated him in verse, none too correctly, though in the kindliest manner, ending thus:--

".... Farewell!

The record of the age's course will tell Of him whose name a double honour bore, Comrade of _Punch_ and champion of the poor."[34]

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. STIRLING COYNE. (_From a Photograph by Lombard and Co._)]

There was a fund of Irish humour in Joseph Stirling Coyne. He had proved it by his plays long before he undertook his share of the co-editors.h.i.+p which was offered him at that "Edinburgh Castle" meeting where so much of _Punch's_ present and future was arranged. He was at that time eight-and-twenty years of age; and although he was dramatic critic of the "Sunday Times," the drama rather than the press was his natural field of action--indeed, he wrote no fewer than five-and-fifty pieces of various kinds, besides plays in collaboration, and was secretary of the Dramatic Authors' Society, until his death. Nevertheless, he belonged in a manner to the inner circle of the "_Punch_ set," and frequented the taverns that were their clubs; and he even went in double harness with Mark Lemon as co-editor, _vice_ "Alphabet" Bayley, of "The Bude Light"--an English imitation of "Les Guepes." He was, in fact, a man of some celebrity who had already gained public reputation beyond the band of men, brilliant, no doubt, but, for the most part, with their successes yet to come--so that he was accorded the important role which he filled with peculiar modesty. He wrote extremely little, but he seems to have formed some distinct notion of his share in the foundation, for Edmund Yates records how his father once came home and, throwing the first number of _Punch_ on the table, said, "Here is Stirling Coyne's new paper!" At last Coyne was charged by Lemon (who always referred contemptuously to him as "Paddy") with stealing one of his "Puff Papers"

from a Dublin paper. At _Punch's_ transfer Coyne quietly, though discontentedly, retired from duties which had hitherto brought him neither reputation nor pleasure, and only a hundred pounds in cash from Landells, and from Douglas Jerrold--as I learn from one who heard it--a savage _mot_, referring to his somewhat uncleanly appearance, which will undoubtedly adhere--"Stirling Coyne? _I call him Filthy Lucre!_"

[Ill.u.s.tration: GILBERT ABBOTT a BECKETT.]

From no choicer spirit than Gilbert Abbott a Beckett could Mayhew have sought for a.s.sistance and literary support. He was the first applied to, and of all the Staff he had had by far the most experience in the production of "comic papers," although he was only thirty years of age.

His brother, the late Hon. T. T. a Beckett, has told how he and his chum Henry Mayhew, his junior by a year, with a consolidated share capital of three pounds and a mortgage to a printer of future profits, prepared to start a "satirical paper," to be called "The Cerberus"--the joint editors being then still young boys. As it happily befell, Mr. a Beckett, senior, discovered a proof of the first number, and with his solicitorial eye discovered some forty-three clear libels in the four columns. He hastened to the address on the imprint, and set the matter plainly before the printer, who was only too glad to cancel the whole matter that had been "set" upon payment of the bill. So deeply were the lads affronted by this unwarrantable interference with their journalistic spirit and liberty of the subject that they ran away from home to Edinburgh, walking all the way; but soon returned in a woeful plight. From that moment, Gilbert turned journalist--it came to him as a second nature--and thenceforward supported himself by his pen, while establis.h.i.+ng a very fair position at the Bar, thanks to the support of his father's firm.

It was in 1831 that he presented himself prominently before the public.

Jerrold's "Punch in London" had not yet begun its little life of seventeen numbers, so that the moment was propitious for a Beckett to embark on a venture of his own; and on December 10th it made its first appearance. This was "Figaro in London," in which his youthful ardour and plain speaking found energetic vent. He was always ready, in a humorous, bombastic sort of spirit, to smash the aristocracy, to chaff Alfred Bunn, to abuse low-cla.s.s Jews, and to discuss the theatre. In these agreeable vocations he hit the popular taste, and certainly achieved a considerable circulation, which, Timbs declares, reached at one time 70,000 copies. Small topical cuts, grandiloquently set down as "magnificent caricatures," were well arranged as a rule, and things were going well enough when editor and artist fell out; Robert Cruikshank took Seymour's place--and a Beckett's monthly adulation of his old "cartoonist's" work turned suddenly to contempt.

All this was meant more than half in fun; it was too violently personal to be serious. Anyway, a Beckett declared in the paper that "it is not true that Robert Seymour has gone out of his mind--he had none to go out of," and Seymour retaliated heartily with a "sharp _cut_." In due course Seymour resumed his place on "Figaro," and retained it to the end. In December, 1834, a Beckett had handed over the paper, in the height of its prosperity, to Henry Mayhew, who continued it for a time, and in 1839 it came to an end. Yet on so slender a basis as this has been brought against a Beckett the cruel charge that it was these a.s.saults which did at a subsequent period drive Seymour out of his mind and led to his unhappy suicide.

After "Figaro" died, and indeed partly during its continuance, a Beckett launched out into an extraordinary series of extraordinary papers, editing for other proprietors "The Wag," "The Evangelical Penny Magazine," Dibdin's "Penny Trumpet," "The Thief" (under the engaging frankness of whose t.i.tle we may see the forerunner of "Public Opinion"), "Poor Richard's Journal," and "The People's Penny Pictures;" while on his own account he ran successively "The Terrific Penny Magazine," "The Ghost," "The Lover," "The Gallery of Terrors," "The Figaro Monthly Newspaper," "The Figaro Caricature Gallery," and "The Comic Magazine."

But in spite of all this ingenuity in t.i.tle-devising, and of all this dogged perseverance--though one can hardly call it seriousness--not one of these journals obtained public support. As a matter of fact, they were the journalistic wild oats of a born journalist and an exuberant litterateur, who, as a youthful playwright and a budding barrister, now had his hands quite full, yet--such was the fever of his industry--never full enough.

His first contribution to _Punch_, according to W. H. Wills' statement, was "The Above Bridge Navy" (p. 35, Volume I., 1841); but it is practically certain that "Commercial Intelligence" in the first number is his. "I recollect well," says the Hon. T. T. a Beckett, in his Reminiscences, "my brother--who wrote for it from the first number to the last that appeared in his life-time--bringing me away from my office on an a.s.surance that if I accompanied him as far as the Strand, he would show me something that would fill me at once with gratification and amazement. He kept me in suspense until I reached Catherine Street, when he stopped short and said, 'Now you shall see me draw a pound from _Punch_, and if that don't amaze you and gratify you, you must have but a poor sense of the marvellous and very little brotherly sympathy.'"

Just about the period when the negotiations were being carried on with Bradbury and Evans, a Beckett began to fall off in the amount of his contributions, and for a time practically ceased altogether. At this time he edited the "Squib" (28th May, 1842), a folio sheet published at three-halfpence, very respectably conducted and printed, and owned by Last _Punch's_ old printer, ill.u.s.trated by Henning, Hamerton, and Newman, _Punch_ artists, treating many of _Punch's_ pet subjects in the _Punch_ spirit, including "Physiologies," which the older paper had made its own. It was also stated that several of the _Punch_ Staff were among its contributors. However this may be, the "Squib" went off in December of the same year, and a Beckett thenceforward worked loyally for _Punch_ for the rest of his life, and bequeathed moreover his two sons to _Punch's_ service.

His popular "Songs for the Seedy," a series of eight poems, were published in this year in _Punch_, as well as "Songs of the Flowers;"

and soon his "Ballads of the Briefless" made a considerable stir in _Punch's_ circle. a Beckett had been called to the Bar some time before, so that his ballads as well as the articles from his hand which appeared--and, from time to time, continued--over the signature of "Mr.

Briefless," had a touch of verisimilitude which went straight to the soft places in the hearts and imagination of the Great Unbriefed. "Mr.

Briefless" became an inst.i.tution in the paper, as, in other journals, Mr. O. P. Q. Philander Smiff, and again, in a lower social scale, Mr.

Alfred Sloper, became recognised by a later generation. This unfortunate gentleman of the Bar--a gentleman always, in spite of his weakness of intellect and character--was shown in all the difficulties germane to his barren profession, and in all the ludicrous situations that came natural to the man. Many of his quaint aphorisms are still remembered, such as that, elsewhere recorded--"As my laundress makes my bed, so I must lie upon it," and "The clerk brings down his master's grey horsehair wig in sorrow to the Court." Yet he was not without self-respect, not to say vanity, for on the occasion of a great political crisis, when the resignation of the Ministry was impending, "Mr. Briefless" somewhat injudiciously left his retreat at Gravesend and came up to London, in order to be on the spot should he be called upon to form or to join the future Cabinet. The only summons he received, however, was from his tailor, and, with the unfailing judgment and good sense that characterised him, he withdrew once more into the country.

"Mr. Briefless" and "Mr. Dunup," his friend, were creations that were at once recognised, and were welcomed during the fifteen years of their occasional appearance.

In 1843 his "_Punch's_ Heathen Mythology" followed Wills' chapters on the same subject, and in the following year his "Comic Blackstone"--one of the cleverest burlesques of its kind in the language--served another purpose than to amuse his readers: it forced him to study the commentaries--for the first time, it was facetiously said--and so made a better lawyer of him, and helped to fit him for the magisterial bench, to which he was soon to be summoned. His "Comic Bradshaw" was another success, which Mr. Burnand repeated and improved upon years after in his inimitable "Out of Town." Mr. Arthur a Beckett, speaking of his father's work, tells me: "I remember on one occasion when my father had written a drama descriptive of the mysteries of Bradshaw, Leech, to whom it was sent for ill.u.s.tration, introduced a series of portraits of the author.

Lemon, noticing this, suggested that the drama should end by the hero getting his head shaved, more clearly to understand the intricacies of railway traffic. My father adopted the suggestion, and Leech followed the 'copy.'"

It was not in these series that his chief work lay, however, but in the enormous ma.s.s of matter he turned into _Punch's_ pages month by month.

He was by far the most prolific of all the contributors, almost up to the time of his death. Articles humorous and pungent on every variety of topic, verse graceful, bright, and comic, sparkling puns innumerable, with increasing thought and sense as the man grew older and realised more and more the responsibility of his position and _Punch's_--all flowed from him in an unceasing, easy stream, distinguished always for its fun and facility. As his average contribution to each volume was a hundred columns, it will be seen that in the time he was working for _Punch_ his total of prose and verse amounted to three thousand feet, or a column nearly as high as the Eiffel Tower! There was, besides, the amount of "outside" work that came from his pen--he was leader-writer to the "Ill.u.s.trated London News," and as such was the literary father of s.h.i.+rley Brooks, the grandfather of Mr. Sala, and the great-grandfather of Mr. James Payn. He was also leader-writer on the "Times," and on one occasion actually wrote all the leaders of the day's issue. This strange coincidence arose from his having had a leader "crowded out" from the day before, which was naturally set down for use the next day, when he contributed his usual article without any question arising; and then a sudden appeal upon a subject with which he was specially familiar brought into the paper a third article from him--and that in the days, now fifty years ago, when the influence and position of the "Times" were perhaps even greater, relatively, than they are to-day: at least, when there was no compet.i.tor that could seriously pretend to share them. In addition to this he edited Cruikshank's "Table Book," and wrote the Comic Histories of England and Rome. It was, it is generally said, on the occasion of the first of these books being announced that Douglas Jerrold wrote to Charles d.i.c.kens: "_Punch_, I believe, holds its course.... Nevertheless, I do not very cordially agree with its new spirit. I am convinced that the world will get tired (at least, I hope so) of this eternal guffaw at all things. After all, life has something serious in it. It cannot all be a comic history of humanity. Some men would, I believe, write a Comic Sermon on the Mount. Think of a Comic History of England; the drollery of Alfred; the fun of Sir Thomas More in the Tower; the farce of his daughter begging the dear head, and clasping it in her coffin on her bosom! Surely the world will be sick of such blasphemy!... When, moreover, the change comes, unless _Punch_ goes a little back to his occasional gravities, he'll be sure to suffer." And d.i.c.kens replied in a letter thanking him for sympathetic reviews, in _Punch_--"Anent the 'Comic ----' and similar comicalities, I feel exactly with you."

Of course, with the exception of the latter part of Jerrold's outburst, wherein he was undoubtedly right, all this protest is exaggerated nonsense--at least, as applied to a Beckett. One would think that neither Jerrold nor d.i.c.kens could bear a burlesque in good taste--Jerrold of all men! But it is just as likely that Jerrold was not referring to a Beckett at all, but to Thackeray, whose "Miss Tickletoby's Comic History" had already made its appearance in _Punch_, and had been incontinently stopped. In any case, the public did not agree with him, for both works are still popular favourites. Moreover, he liked a Beckett too well to harm him in the mind of a common friend; and he was unquestionably aware that the loftiness of a Beckett's aims and character rendered him una.s.sailable against a charge of irreverence or lack of respect. Certain it is, at least, that when a Beckett died at Boulogne Jerrold felt the blow so deeply that he gave up that town thenceforward as a place of residence, nor would he ever visit it again.

It was at the early age of thirty-eight that a Beckett was appointed police-magistrate, chiefly owing to the masterly report he drew up as Poor-Law Commissioner in respect to the notorious Andover Union Workhouse scandals[35]--"one of the best," said the Home Secretary, "ever presented to Parliament." The appointment was much discussed, for the general feeling had been educated in the views of Lord Selborne, who a.s.serted that no "person" connected with the Press nor any "gentleman in the wine trade" could be permitted to attain to such an honour as the Bench--an absurdity which has long since been dismissed. On one occasion, it is said, when a Beckett lived at No. 10, Hyde Park Gate South, Kensington Gore, he was instructed to hold himself in readiness, as magistrate, to answer a summons to read the Riot Act in Hyde Park to the unruly mob whose methods of protest against a popular grievance const.i.tuted the "Beer Bill Riots" of 1855. That summons never came, luckily for him; for later in the day he discovered, to his dismay, that his careful and solicitous wife, with greater respect for her husband's skin than for the needs of Government, Police, and Proletariat combined, had gone out early, after securely locking the unconscious magistrate in his library, and had prudently carried off the key.

a Beckett had been one of the shyest and most nervous men that ever lived, but his appointment to the police-court--first at Greenwich, then at Southwark--removed much of his undue modesty, and he was recognised as being energetic, sagacious, and humane. He was a tremendous worker, incomparably quick, and above all was absolutely punctual in his delivery of "copy"--a virtue quite sufficient to account for his popularity with publishers, who also were attracted by his retiring and distinguished manners. Though his conversation was bright, he preferred to keep his witticisms for his public or private writings, as when, in sending in a parcel of "copy" to Mark Lemon, he wrote on the outside:--

"Dear Mark--I do herewith enclose Some 'copy' both in verse and prose.

'Tis neither very bright nor terse-- The verse is bad--the prose is worse.

But you, of course, will read and check it.

Yours ever, G. etcet'ra Beckett."