Mr. Henry Pottinger Stephens, one of the wits of the "Sporting Times,"

the founder of the "Topical Times," and member of the staff of the "Daily Telegraph," was for two or three years on the outside salaried Staff of _Punch_. Contributing from 1889 to 1891, he wrote a series of "queer tales" as well as some attacks on the then South Western Railway management, under the t.i.tle of "The Ways of Waterloo." Such dramatic criticisms as were not undertaken by Mr. Burnand or relegated by him to Mr. Arthur a Beckett, and numerous trifles besides, fell to him to do; but on his departure for America the connection was broken, and not afterwards resumed.

Pa.s.sing by Mr. C. W. Cooke, we find Mr. Charles Geake, member of the Bar and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, as the chief recruit of the year 1890. To "The Granta" he had sent a casual contribution, and Mr. R. C.

Lehmann, appreciating his talent, proved his esteem by installing Mr.

Geake as the Cambridge editor of that paper. From "The Granta" to _Punch_ has become a natural ascent, and on July 12th, 1890, Mr. Geake made his first bow to London readers. Three months later a packet of _Punch_ office envelopes announced that he had been placed on the footing of a regular outside contributor, and that it was now his privilege to send his work straight to the printer's. At first he wrote nothing but verse--society verse, ballades, rondeaux, topical verse, and parodies in verse and prose, and then burlesques of books, such as the capital imitation of "The Tale of Two Telegrams" (a "Dolly Dialogue" in the manner of "Anthony Hope"), p. 97, Vol. CVII., September 1st, 1894, and "The Blue Gardenia" (October 20th, 1894, p. 185), with various skits and topical matter. "Lays of the Currency" are among the chief of Mr.

Geake's poetical "series," and "Chronicles of a Rural Parish"--the adventures and misadventures of a rural parishioner who wishes to patronise the Parish Councils Act--his princ.i.p.al effort in comic prose.

The year 1892 brought three new writers: Mr. Gerald F. Campbell, who began by contributing (on April 23rd) poems of sentiment, such as "Town Thoughts from the Country," and three months later "The Cry of the Children" and "Alone in London;" R. F. Murray, the American-born author of "The Scarlet Gown," who, through Mr. Andrew Lang's introduction, sent in a few verses shortly before his death; and Mr. Roberts, who finds his place among the artists.

Mr. George Davies was an important accession of the following year. On only half-a-dozen occasions had he ever been in print, and that in obscure publications, when he composed an "Ethnographical Alphabet,"

beginning "A is an Afghan." The writer, who is something of a tsiganologue, emboldened by his success, followed up his alphabet, which appeared January 21st, 1893, and within a year had placed to his credit three-score contributions, most of them in verse--rather a remarkable achievement for one heretofore considered a mere bookworm and dryasdust.

Another Cambridge man of originality and ingenuity, mainly in verse, is Mr. Arthur A. Sykes--a "Cantabard," as he himself would admit, peculiarly skilled in "Cambrijingles." He began with "In the Key of Ruthene" on May 6th, 1893, and followed it up with a laughable ode "To a Fashion-Plate Belle." It was accompanied with a comic, though hardly exaggerated, design of the female figure as depicted in ladies'

fashion-papers--the drawing being also by Mr. Sykes. Since then many verses by him have appeared, in which quaint conception, sudden turn of thought, and strange achievements in rhyming (as in "The Tour That Never Was," August 19th, 1893) are the chief figures. Then came the promotion embodied in the privilege of sending his contributions direct to the printer before, instead of after, being submitted to the editorial eye; and a good deal of prose work followed, such as the "Scarlet Afternoon,"

a skit in dialogue suggested by Mr. R. S. Hichens' "Green Carnation."

Light verse from the Rev. Anthony C. Deane began on August 20th, 1892 ("Ad Puellam"), but he was already a master of the art. Two months before his little volume of "Frivolous Verses" had appeared, and so struck Mr. Andrew Lang that he reviewed it in a "Daily News"

leading-article, invited the author to go and see him, and suggested his writing for _Punch_. Mr. Deane had already been a "Granta" poet, and was well known to Mr. Lehmann, who, finding that Mr. Lang had already spoken to Mr. Anstey, gladly added a word of introduction to the Editor.

By such means as these, oftener than by promiscuous outside application, is new blood found: the best men do not, as a rule, force forward their own work. Mr. Deane at that time was not twenty-two, nor was he yet ordained. He pa.s.sed the necessary period at the same theological college--Cuddesdon--that years before had sheltered Mr. Burnand, and went on contributing verses to _Punch_, to the number (1894) of sixty or seventy; so that the course of his _Punch_ love has run very smooth.

Another literary G.o.dson of Mr. Lehmann's, and child of "The Granta," is Mr. Owen Seaman. Through the good offices of the former, Mr. Seaman's "Rhyme of the Kipperling," nearly filling the first page of _Punch_, was inserted in the number for January 13th, 1894. This imitation of Mr.

Rudyard Kipling's "Rhyme of the Three Sealers" was its own recommendation, and since that time Mr. Seaman has been one of the most prolific outside contributors of the year. His series comprise "She-Notes"--a skit on "Keynotes" and "Airs Resumptive"--of which the fourth, "To Julia in Shooting-togs (and a Herrickose Vein)" is an admirable specimen of its cla.s.s. Art and political criticism in verse and prose are employed to ill.u.s.trate the writer's facility and cla.s.sic taste.

To this list, necessarily incomplete, in spite of its length, a few names remain to be added, and an incongruous party they form. Professor Forbes; Mr. J. C. Wilson, mantle manufacturer; and Mr. J. J. Lushington, of the Suffolk Chief Constable's Office, first a soldier and finally an auctioneer (a giant of nearly six feet seven, who would have formed a good fourth to Thackeray, "Jacob Omnium," and Dean Hole)--men of every sort and condition, brought together by the universal brotherhood of humour. Mrs. Frances Collins was a contributor, and her _Punch_ utterance upon Judge Bayley's curious decision at Westminster County Court in January, 1877, as to next-door music that is "intolerable," yet not "actionable" ("Music hath (C)Harms"), is still remembered and quoted. Another lady-wit of the present day is Mr. Lehmann's sister, Lady Campbell, who wrote the women's letters in the series of "Manners and Customs," while her brother took the male side of the correspondence. Mrs. Leverson has been the contributor of numerous clever prose parodies and general articles, the chief of which up to June, 1895, has been "The Scarlet Parasol." Mr. James Payn has also worked for _Punch_, but very little--only to the extent of placing some little pleasantry at its service, and now and then suggesting a subject for ill.u.s.tration. A set of rhymes by Mr. H. D. Traill, reprinted in his volume ent.i.tled "Number Twenty," was his sole contribution, the "Sat.u.r.day Review" having had a sort of prescriptive right to all his work of this description. It is the greater pity, for even the lightest of his verses have the true ring and, according to some, much of the vigour characteristic of Mr. Rudyard Kipling's work. Mr. Arthur Armitage, too, was for many years a contributor. Being a solicitor in practice, he kept his ident.i.ty a secret. He was always known to the Editor and Proprietors as "Mr. A. Armstrong," and up to this present publication he never revealed the levity of his youth. His first contribution was "Marriage Customs of the Great Britons," which was inserted in the "Pocket-Book" for 1855. After writing regularly for this offspring of _Punch's_, Mr. Armitage was, in 1861, specially invited to contribute to the paper itself on topics political, social, and commercial--only a satire on "The Baby of the Papal States" (Louis Napoleon) being rejected, on the ground that, were it inserted, war with France would be inevitable. On Mark Lemon's death Mr. Armitage ceased his connection as an "outside regular," and five years later reprinted a number of his most amusing _Punch_ verses and articles under the t.i.tle of "Winkleton-on-Sea." Frederick Gale--better known as "The Old Buffer"

and as the great cricket authority--wrote a short series for _Punch_.

Then Mr. Walter Sichel, since the beginning of 1892, has contributed some prose and more verse, such as the series of "Men who have taken me in--to dinner," "Lays of Modern Home," "Inns and Outs," as well as "Rhymes out of Season," "The Diary of an Old Joke," and the original "Queer Queries." The late magistrate, Mr. Hosack, too, contributed several sharp police-court sketches; and "Arthur Sketchley" had a capital story to tell, but spoiled it in the telling. Even H. J. Byron, contrary to general belief, tried his hand as a _Punch_ contributor, but he was somewhat dull. He admitted, in fact, that he wanted to keep all his fun for his plays, and so starved his _Punch_ work of its legitimate humour. Mr. Arthur E. Viles's verses on "Temple Bar" (December, 1877) may be mentioned, and Mr. Leopold G.o.dfrey Turner's name must not be omitted. But, of the contributors of trifles, a number must remain anonymous--as, indeed, many do from choice; inevitably so before 1847, when it first became the practice to enter up outsiders' work in their own names. And among these occasional contributors the present writer is proud to range himself.

In looking at the literature of _Punch_, we become sensible of a change not dissimilar to that which we find to have taken place in its art.

There is nowadays no Jerrold, whose fulminating pa.s.sion and fine frenzy often came dangerously near to "high-falutin'." There is perhaps no versifier at the Table with quite the same fancy or taste as Gilbert Abbott a Beckett, Shirley Brooks, and Percival Leigh. But we have instead a keener observation of the life and customs of the day, an ingenuity and an elegance that go better with the taste and habit of thought of the times. In the old days it was not uncommon in discussing _Punch's_ poetry to urge in apology that--

Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.

Nowadays, when comedy and rapier have to a great extent replaced farce and sword, finish is accounted of greater importance than of yore, and grace and daintiness are accepted where simple fun was formerly the aim--an aim, by the way, which was as frequently missed as now. Let the reader who is inclined to be as severe on latter-day _Punch_ as on latter-day everything, take down one of the early volumes, and seek for the side-splitting articles and epigrams, the verse apoplectic with fun, which we are taught to expect there. He will learn that it is not so much that the quality of _Punch_ has changed, despite the great names of the past. He will find that the change is due rather to modern fashion and to modern views than to any deterioration of _Punch's_. Good things are there now, as then; and now, as then, many of the best writers in the country contribute periodically to its pages. With verse and article, epigram and parody, _Punch_ continues to be a record and a mirror of his times--a comic distorting mirror perhaps, but still a gla.s.s of fashion and of history, with fun for its mercury, which, through its literature, pleasantly and agreeably reflects the deeds and the thoughts of the people. What of it, if his verse now and again is only pa.s.sable? Sometimes it is fine--always acceptable, and rarely below an elevated established standard; anyhow, some years ago, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's single offering was rejected on its demerits by the "monument of British humour." Perhaps the Editor judged it as _Punch's_ railway-porter judged an old lady's pet in accordance with railway rules: Cats is "dogs," and rabbits is "dogs," and so's parrots; but this 'ere tortis is a hinsect, and there ain't no--need--for it. And the tone of _Punch's_ more serious utterances is now that of the dining-room rather than of the debating society and the vestry room. Mr. Ruskin, among others, deplored _Punch's_ kid gloves and evening-dress, when amiable obituary notices on Baron Beth.e.l.l--(had he not been _Punch's_ counsel in the old days?)--and the Bishop of Winchester were published.

"Alas, Mr. Punch," he wrote, "is it come to this? And is there to be no more knocking down, then? And is your last scene in future to be shaking hands with the devil?"[49] _Punch_ can still hit hard; though "knocking down" is no longer his main delight. His text has become as refined as his art--and that, of course, is the reason that it no longer commands the chief attention of the cla.s.s that once was led by it. At that time its art alone carried it into circles that abhorred its politics, and it is recorded that Mulready was driven to excuse himself to one of the Staff for not reading the text by the lame confession that he was "no bookworm!"

FOOTNOTES:

[48] Having mentioned the name of Edmund Yates, I may here contradict the statement that that distinguished journalist ever wrote for _Punch_.

The belief arose partly through Martin F. Tupper's "My Life as an Author":--"I remember also how he dropped in on me at Albany one morning, just as I happened to be pasting into one of my books a few quips and cranks anent my books from _Punch_. He adjured me 'not to do it! for Heaven's sake spare me!' covering his face with his hands.

'What's the matter, friend?' 'I wrote all those,' added he in earnest penitence, 'and I vow faithfully never to do it again!' 'Pray don't make a rash promise, Edmund, and so unkind a one too; I rejoice in all this sort of thing--it sells my books, besides--I'se Maw-worm--I likes to be despised!' 'Well, it's very good-natured of you to say so, but I really never will do it again;' and the good fellow never did--so have I lost my most telling advertis.e.m.e.nt" (p. 326). Considering, however, that Yates was on the worst of terms with Mark Lemon, we may easily believe that he did not contribute to his paper, and as during his early friendship with Mr. Burnand he never hinted at writing for _Punch_ as an outsider, the statement may be dismissed. Moreover, so fantastic is the scene described that, if strictly accurate, it was most likely a practical joke played off upon the egotistical old gentleman, whose worst enemies never accused him of a sense of humour.

[49] "Fors," 1874 (p. 125).

CHAPTER XVIII.

_PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1841.

_Punch's_ Primitive Art--A. S. Henning--Brine--A Strange Doctrine--John Phillips--W. Newman--Pictorial Puns--H. G.

Hine--John Leech--His Early Life--Friendship with Albert Smith--Leech Helps _Punch_ up the Social Ladder--His Political Work--Leech Follows the "Movements"--"Servantgalism"--"The Brook Green Volunteer"--The Great Beard Movement--Sothern's Indebtedness to Leech for Lord Dundreary--Crazes and Fancies--Leech's Types--"Mr. Briggs"--Leech the Hunter--Leech as a Reformer--Leech as an Artist--His "Legend"-Writing--Friendship with d.i.c.kens--His Prejudices--His Death--And Funeral.

One of the peculiarities of _Punch's_ career is the increasing preponderance a.s.sumed by the artistic section. It is said that when George Hodder was introduced to a distinguished Royal Academician, he could find nothing better to say, with which to open the conversation, than the tremendous sentiment--"Art is a great thing, sir!" _Punch_ gradually but surely realised, too, how great a thing art is, and for many years past he has sought out artists to recruit his Staff, where before he looked chiefly for draughtsmen. The statement may seem a curious one to make, but it is an opinion shared nowadays by some of the best artists on _Punch_ and off it, that were the drawings sent in to-day which were contributed by the majority of the original artistic Staff, not excluding the mighty Leech himself, they would be declined without thanks, and--according to the somewhat harsh rule that has for some time prevailed--without return of their contribution. There was a promiscuous rough-and-ready manner about the drawing of comic cuts in those early days, when intended for the periodical press, that would offend the majority of people to-day. There was no photography then to enable the artist to draw as big as he chose, and then to reproduce the drawings on to the wood-block in any size he please. There were no blocks which could be taken into sections and distributed among half-a-dozen engravers at once for swift and careful cutting. There was no "process," which permitted of reduction and reproduction of the finest pen-and-ink work. There was no "drawing from the life" for these little pictures of "life and character." The joke was the thing, not the artistic drawing of it. Farce and burlesque had not yet developed into comedy and comedietta, refined by degrees and beautifully aesthetic.

Nowadays, as Mr. du Maurier has publicly declared, everything must be drawn straight from Nature, without trusting to memory or observation alone. "Men and women, horses, dogs, seascapes, landscapes, everything one can make little pictures out of, must be studied from life.... Even centaurs, dragons, and cherubs must be closely imitated from Nature--or at least as much as can be got from the living model!" It is, therefore, more than likely that Leech would have been told that he must really be more careful in his work before _Punch_ could publish it; and his first contribution of "Foreign Affairs" would have been rejected as being altogether too rough and with far too little point for its size. All _Punch's_ pictures at this day, no doubt, cannot be said to surpa.s.s the artistic achievement of some of the earliest cuts, but there is almost invariably an artistic intention, technically speaking, which excuses even the poorer work--a suggestion of the drawing-school rather than, to use a modern expression, mere "dancing upon paper."

Although from the beginning to the present day the artistic Staff which has sat at _Punch's_ Table has numbered less than a score, and the outside Staff, unattached (such as Captain Howard, Mr. Sands, Mr.

Pritchett, Mr. Fairfield, Mr. Atkinson, Mr. Ralston, and Mr. Corbould), but very few more--the total number of draughtsmen whose pencils have been seen in _Punch's_ pages amount to about one hundred and seventy. In some cases sketches have been sent in anonymously; a few others I have been unable to trace; but these, it must be admitted, are hardly worth the trouble expended on them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A. S. HENNING.

(_From a Water-Colour by his son, Mr. Walton Henning._)]

The earliest recruit was Archibald S. Henning, the first in importance, as he was to be cartoonist, and first to appear before the public, inasmuch as the wrapper was from his hand. He was the third son of John Henning, friend of Scott and Dr. Chalmers, on the strength of his famous miniature restoration of the Parthenon frieze, of which he engraved the figures on slate in intaglio; and he was well known besides not only for these copies of the Elgin marbles, but for his portrait-busts and medallions. Precision in all things was one of his characteristics, and even showed itself in the inscriptions in his family Bible, wherein he set on record that his son Archibald was "born at Edinburgh, on the 18th of February, at 30 minutes past 3 a.m." But this accuracy was not inherited, although the son was brought up to a.s.sist his father on the friezes which he executed on Burton's Arch at Hyde Park Corner, and on the Athenaeum Club-house. His drawing was loose and undistinguished; his sense of humour, such as it was, unrefined; and his fun exaggerated and false. He was a Bohemian, but not of the type of his brother-in-law Kenny Meadows, preferring a cla.s.s of entertainment less exalted than those who so warmly welcomed his sister's husband. Mr. Sala tells me that Henning painted the show-blind for the Post Office, and afterwards steadily drifted down the stream of time; and Mr. Sala ought to know, for he employed him in those impecunious but jolly days when the editorship of "Chat" was in his hands. One of the early memories of Mr.

Walton Henning, Archibald's son, is being sent by his father to collect the sum of one pound sterling from Mr. Sala, and, after sitting on the office-stool from eleven in the morning until two, being sent back without the money, but instead with a letter of apology and of congratulation on possessing a son who could sit for three hours, like Patience on a monument, smiling at an empty till. Henning remained with _Punch_ till the summer of 1842, having contributed eleven cartoons to the first volume and several to the second, the last of which was that of "Indirect Taxation," on p. 201. He also ill.u.s.trated Albert Smith's social "physiologies" of "The Gent" and "The Ballet Girl"--not ill-done; and when _Punch_ had no further need of his services he transferred them successively to "The Squib," "The Great Gun," and "Joe Miller the Younger," in each case taking the post of cartoonist. Later on he worked occasionally on "The Man in the Moon" and on the "Comic Times," and died in 1864.

No greater loss was Brine, Henning's fellow-cartoonist, who remained with _Punch_ until the beginning of the third volume, having drawn nearly a dozen cartoons for each of the two volumes. He was a poor and often a "fudgy" draughtsman, gifted with extremely little humour, who had nevertheless worked a good deal at a Life Academy in the Tottenham Court Road, along with Thomas Woolner, Elmore, Claxton, and J. R.

Herbert, and had even studied in Paris. He had some strange notions as to figure-drawing, some of which he would impart to such young students as cared to listen. One of these rules, which he sought to impress on Mr. Birket Foster's 'prentice mind, was never to draw ankle-joints on female legs; but Mr. Foster did not remain a figure-draughtsman long enough to benefit by this valuable advice. Brine was poorly paid, some of his smaller cuts commanding a sum no higher than three-and-six; but it is impossible to say, looking at these sketches, that his efforts were seriously underpaid.

Another of the Old Guard was John Phillips--who is not to be confused with Watts Phillips, a contributor of a later period. He was the son of an eccentric old water-colour painter, well known in his day, and has been identified as the scene-painter whom Landells introduced later to the "Ill.u.s.trated London News." Phillips, with Crowquill, ill.u.s.trated Reynolds' popular "continuation" of d.i.c.kens' Pickwick Papers, ent.i.tled "Pickwick Abroad," and, like Brine, he received his _conge_ when the transfer of _Punch_ to Bradbury and Evans took place.

And then there was by far the most important and valuable draughtsman of the quartette--William Newman. He was a very poor man, who in point of payment for his work suffered more than the rest; and when he asked for a slight increase in terms, he was met with a refusal on the ground that "Mr. John Leech required such high prices." He was an old hand at pictorial satire, and was one of those who drew the little caricatures in "Figaro in London" several years before. He was brought on to _Punch_ by Landells, but, owing to his lack of breeding and of common manners, he was never invited to the Dinner, nor did any of his colleagues care to a.s.sociate with him. Unfortunately for him he was an extremely sensitive man, and the neglect with which he was perhaps not unnaturally treated preyed greatly upon his mind. For a considerable time he was the most prolific draughtsman on the paper. Thus in 1846 there are no fewer than eighty-seven cuts by him; in 1847, one hundred and twenty-seven; in 1848, one hundred and sixty-four; and in 1849, one hundred and twenty-one. From the cut on _Punch's_ first t.i.tle-page down to the year 1850 his work is everywhere to be seen, in every degree of importance, from the little _silhouettes_ called "blackies," which usually const.i.tuted little pictorial puns in the manner of Thomas Hood, and which were paid--those of them which were good and funny enough to be used--at the all-round rate of eighteen shillings per dozen. Instances of his happy punning vein are the sketches of a howling dog chained to a post, ent.i.tled "The Moaning of the Tide;" a portrait of a villainous-looking fellow, "Open to Conviction;" a horse insisting on drinking at a pond through which he is being driven, "Stopping at a Watering-Place;" a hare nursing her young, "The Hare a Parent;" a man wrestling with his cornet, "A most Distressing Blow;" and a street-boy picking a soldier's pocket, "Relieving Guard." But he was soon promoted to other work; and to the first and second volumes, at times of pressure, he even contributed a cartoon. This service was four times repeated in 1846, and again in 1847 and 1848, when Leech met with his serious bathing accident at Bonchurch: on which occasion the great John was put to bed, as d.i.c.kens explained it, with a row of his namesakes round his forehead. The cartoon in question was that ent.i.tled "Dirty Father Thames," and a glance at it will show how great was the improvement in the draughtsman's art. Newman did not, however, confine himself to _Punch_ all this while; he had worked as cartoonist to "The Squib" in 1842; and again for the "Puppet-Show," "Diogenes," and H. J.

Byron's "The Comic News" in 1864. Then, disappointed at the little advance he had made in the world, he emigrated to the United States, where more lucrative employment awaited him. He had a greater sense of beauty and a more refined touch than most of his colleagues; and though he did not shine as a satirist, he was always well in the spirit of _Punch_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: H. G. HINE, V.P.R.I.

(_From a Photograph by E. Wheeler, Brighton._)]

But the most interesting of _Punch's_ earliest men before the advent of Leech was H. G. Hine, who up to 1895 was the octogenarian Vice-President of the Inst.i.tute of Painters in Water-Colours, whose broad and masterly drawings of poetic landscape have been the artistic wonder of recent years. He began to draw for _Punch_ in September, 1841, and thenceforward bore with Newman the brunt of the ill.u.s.tration. He was really a serious painter--a water-colour artist of strong aim and considerable accomplishment. Just before the starting of _Punch_ Landells had, as has already been explained, launched a landscape periodical called "The Cosmorama," and had commissioned Hine to go to the London Dock and make a drawing on the wood. The work was not new to him, as Wood, a master-engraver of the time, taking pity on the sense of foolish powerlessness with which every beginner is afflicted, had explained to him the secret of the craft. Landscape was thus his acknowledged line when he found himself at the Docks with his round of boxwood in his hand. He marked off a square upon it, and, in order to "get his hand in," he made what would nowadays be called a _remarque_ on the margin--a comic sketch of a dustman and his dog. The block was finished, and carried to Landells, who looked at it in some surprise.

"Did you do that?" said the North Countryman, pointing to the dustman.

"Would you draw sketches like that for _Poonch_?" "But I'm not a figure-draughtsman," objected Hine. "Yes, you are; and it's just what we want for _Poonch_." So Hine was enrolled, and in his line became an exceedingly popular draughtsman. He began by making batches of the "blackies" aforesaid, designing them and their clever punning t.i.tles with the greatest freedom, unhampered by editorial interference. He worked for _Punch_ until 1844, and rapidly became a contributor of the first importance, whose merits were fully appreciated. One cut in particular delighted Mark Lemon--that of "A Long Nap," in which a toper has fallen into a sleep so deep and protracted that a spider has spun a strong web from the man's nose to the bottle and the table before him.[50] "Upon my word!" cried Lemon on examining the block when it was delivered, "Mr. Hine is really tremendous!" Hine had greater imagination and ingenuity than Newman, a brighter fancy and keener wit; and to him rather than to others would application be made for the realisation of new ideas. At Landells' request he produced the accompanying "project"

for a _Punch_ medal or seal; which, however, was never carried into execution. His, too, were the stinging Anti-Graham Wafers, to which reference is made elsewhere; and many other designs that went far to increase _Punch's_ popularity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DESIGN FOR "PUNCH" SEAL, BY H. G. HINE.]

He was chief stock-artist, so to say; for Leech did not at once a.s.sume the commanding position on the paper that was soon to be his. And while Hine shared with him the honour of drawing "Punch's Pencillings," as the cartoons were called--several of the series of "Social Miseries" being from his hand--he produced from time to time the chief cut when it aspired to the dignity of a political caricature.

After a time, however, the amount of work sent to Hine was greatly reduced. It was now some time since he had contributed the whole of the cuts to the first "Almanac," but he was still an occasional cartoonist (Vols. III., IV., and V.); so that he was the more surprised at being roughly--and, as he proved, unjustly--accused of being late with a block. Other unpleasantnesses, which seemed to him gratuitous, suggested the idea that he might not be wanted on _Punch_. He put the point blankly, and was rea.s.sured. Still, the quant.i.ty of work sent him diminished; and as nothing came by Christmas, Hine accepted the offer of Christmas-work by the publisher of "The Great Gun"--for which, by the way, he never received payment. Then there suddenly arrived a ma.s.s of blocks from _Punch_; but they were returned with the message that, not hearing from his former proprietors, he had made other arrangements. And that was the end of his connection. Later on he worked for "Joe Miller the Younger," "Mephystopheles," and "The Man in the Moon," and used his pencil, in the true Spirit of a genuine sportsman, in pointing his well-barbed jokes against his old paper with as much enthusiasm as he had before given to its service. On page 153 of the second volume of _Punch_ may be seen a little cut ent.i.tled "Choice Spirits in Bond"--being the portraits of himself and the lanky William Newman in the dock of a police-court. Although fifty-four years had pa.s.sed, the strong resemblance of the little likeness could still be recognised by those who knew the artist in the last few months of his life.

After the collapse of "The Man in the Moon" Hine dropped out of comic draughtsmanship. By this time, indeed, he was tired of the work, for he had begun to think in jokes, to turn every thought to ridicule, and to look upon conversation rather as raw material for pun-making than as a means of expressing and interchanging ideas. The last straw was an occasion when he spent half a night with Horace Mayhew in trying to make a joke to complete a series for "Cruikshank's Almanack"--the very situation in Pope's epigram:--

"You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come; Knock as you please, there's n.o.body at home."

Meanwhile another had arisen who was destined to overshadow for many years the rest of his colleagues, and while he lived to be the life and soul of the undertaking--Mr. Punch incarnate. This was John Leech, whose signature first appears on page 43 of the first volume.

When Mr. Frith, R.A., sought to persuade the overworked Leech to take a holiday, he added, just to drive the matter home: "If anything happened to you, who are the 'backbone of _Punch_,' what would become of the paper?" At which Leech smiled, says his biographer, and retorted, "Don't talk such rubbish! Backbone of _Punch_, indeed! Why, bless your heart, there isn't a fellow at work upon the paper that doesn't think _that_ of himself, and with about as much right and reason as I should. _Punch_ will get on well enough without me, or any of those who think themselves of such importance." In his life-time none would have been found to share the speaker's views; nevertheless, _Punch_--for all Leech's paramount importance to the paper--has maintained his prosperity, and more than doubled his lease of life since Leech laid down his pencil.

Yet in his time he was as much the artistic _Punch_ as Jerrold was the literary; and there are nearly as many who still believe that Leech at one time was _Punch's_ Editor as accord the same unmerited honour to Jerrold.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN LEECH.