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 "Illustrated London News," and as such was the literary father of
Shirley 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 competitor 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 Dickens: "_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
Dickens replied in a le