o spouting. Mr.
Furniss hurt Keene's feelings once with the happiest and kindest of
compliments. It was at a little dinner party, and Mr. Furniss linked
Keene's name with that of Robert Hunter--who did so much to provide open
spaces for the people. He referred to Keene as "the greatest provider of
open spaces!" Keene said he was never so grossly insulted--he never
forgave Mr. Furniss. He failed to see the truly charming inference to be
drawn from this remark.

[Illustration: "THE ASSASSINATED SCARECROW, SOR!"]

We went into the drawing-room, and together ran through the pages of a
huge volume. It contained the facsimiles of the pictures which comprised
one of Mr. Furniss's biggest hits--what was in reality an attack on the
Royal Academy. His "Artistic Joke"--a sub-title given to this exhibition
by the _Times_ in a long preliminary notice--created a sensation six
years ago. He attacked the Royal Academy in a good-natured way, because
he was not himself a member of that influential body. But there was a
more solid and serious reason. "I saw how cruel they were to younger
men," he said; "the long odds against a painter getting his work
exhibited, the indiscriminate selection of canvases."

This really great effort on the part of Mr. Furniss--this idea to
caricature the style of the eminent artists of the day--kept him at work
for more than two years. There were eighty-seven canvases in all. His
friends came and went, but they saw nothing of the huge canvases hidden
away in his studio. He worked at such a rate that he became nervous of
himself. He would go to bed at night. He would wake to find himself
cutting the style of an R.A. to pieces in his studio at early morn--in a
state of semi-somnambulism. He fired his "Artistic Joke" off, the shot
went home, and the effect was a startler for many people and in many
places. It advanced Mr. Furniss in the world of art in a way he never
expected, and did not a little for those he sought to benefit. One of
these "jokes"--and a very dramatic one--is reproduced in these pages.

The hour or two passed in the little drawing-room after dinner was
delightful. We had his unique platform entertainment. Mr. Furniss was
induced by the Birmingham and Midland Institute to appear on the
platform as a lecturer. This was followed by his lecturing for two
seasons all over the country, but finding that the Institutes made huge
profits out of his efforts, and that his anecdotes and mimicry were t