Furniss's Beetle--Mr. Birket Foster and
Mr. Andrew Tuer--Plagiarism and Repetition--The Seamy Side of
Joke-editing--_Punch_ Invokes the Law--Rape of Mrs. Caudle--_Sturm
und Drang_--Plagiarism or Coincidence?--Anticipations of the
"Puppet-Show" and "The Arrow"--Of Joe Miller--And
Others--_Punch_-baiting--Impossibility of
Joke-identification--Repetitions and Improvements.

It may fairly be said that not three per cent.--probably not one per
cent.--of the jokes sent in to _Punch_ "from outside" are worthy either
of publication as they stand, or even of being considered raw material
for manipulation by the editor or his artists. In this low estimate, of
course, are not included the work of the few regular contributors who
are recognised, though "unattached," as well as of the others who make a
practice of sending every good new joke they hear to such a friend as
they may happen to have on the Staff. These two classes are not
numerous; but they are, and have for years formed, a little body of
bright-witted, laughter-loving persons, to whom _Punch_ and _Punch_
readers are under an equal debt of gratitude.

In the United States the providing of jokes for illustration in the
comic press is to some extent a recognised, if a limited and illiberal,
profession, he who follows it being commonly described as the "Unknown
Man." Endowed with natural wit and invention, but denied the gift of
draughtsmanship, this "dumb orator" is supposed to turn out jokes as
other men would turn out chair-legs, and sends them in priced, like
gloves, at so much a dozen, "on approval--for sale or return," with a
suggested _mise en scene_ complete, which the illustrator is
recommended to adopt. How far the system answers its purpose I am
unable to judge; but if the experience of Mr. Phil May may be taken as
an example, there is every reason why the Man should remain Unknown.
For, at the suggestion of a fellow-artist, he ordered five dollars-worth
of original jokes, the price being quoted at a dollar per joke. His
order was executed with punctuality and despatch, when Mr. May found, to
his amusement and dismay, that three of the jokes were former _Punch_
friends, and the remaining two were old ones of his own invention!

In the United Kingdom the joke-contributor is as a rule a disinterested
person, usually seeking neither pay nor recognition; and so far as his
estimate bears upon the value of his contribution, it must be