eynolds
the unique position which he occupies amongst the humorous artists
of to-day.

[Illustration: LITTLE WILLIE: You'll catch it, Gerald, when mother
sees you!

GERALD: Why? Is my collar dirty?

_From "Punch."_]

For unique his position is. Other men are as funny as he, perhaps
funnier. For when a determined man sets out with a fixed and unshakeable
resolve to tickle your fancy, there is no limit to the means he
may adopt to catch you unawares, and it shall go hard with him
but he extorts from you a laugh, however tardy. Frank Reynolds
makes no such desperate efforts. One might say, indeed, that he
makes no effort at all. His simple method is to set down--with
the most refined and delicate art--just one of those little scenes
or incidents which everyone may every day everywhere witness.

[Illustration]

Spectators of such a scene in real life, it is possible--probable,
in fact--that we were in no way edified or amused. Not the veriest
ghost of a smile, it is likely, flickered across our faces. But
reproduced by the subtle humour of the artist, the inherent comedy
of the situation stands revealed, and we chuckle. And our enjoyment
is the greater for the skill with which the means are concealed
by which this magical transformation is effected. We feel that we
have discovered the comedy ourselves, not that it has been shown
to us. The characters are so perfectly natural, so precisely as we
know them and have seen them day after day. The secret lies in the
artist's power of restraint. He exaggerates, he caricatures,--he
must do so to bring his point home to our dull wits. But he does
it with such nicety that the exaggeration and the caricature are
unnoticed. Indeed, the terms are misleading. It is better to say
that he _emphasises_.

Frank Reynolds reminds me, if he will forgive my saying so, of a
certain profane 'bus-driver whom I have the privilege to number
amongst my acquaintance. With this close student of human nature
I have had the good fortune to enjoy frequent conversations, and
many are the gestures which I recall of the whip-hand towards the
pavement, accompanied by the remark (in effect), "Lumme, what funny
things a bloke _do_ see!" I confess freely that often I should
entirely miss, but for the observant jerk of the whip, the said
"funny thing"; and it is just that service which the friendly busman
renders to me, as it appears to my mind, that Frank Reynolds performs
for the community at large.