bout
this time had to complain that certain facilities had been refused him
by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and who, in retaliation, professed
thenceforward to believe that the two creatures were identical. But the
insinuation was untrue. For the Sergeant was already an established
insect in _Punch_ before the appearance of the genuine black-beetle;
and, moreover, so little did he resent it, that he used to stick the
amusing little libels all round his mantelpiece.

The national practice of sending in alleged jokes to _Punch_--a
practice, I imagine, of which the result is sufficient to prove how
deficient in wit, if not in humour, is the English people considered as
a community--is doubtless a convenient one to the many persons who live
upon a fraudulent reputation of being "outside," and of course
anonymous, _Punch_ contributors. "How clever of you!" said a lady in one
well-authenticated case to just such an impostor; "how very clever you
must be! And what is it you write in _Punch_?" "Oh, all the best things
are mine." The difficulty which Thomas Hood actually experienced in
establishing his authorship of "The Song of the Shirt" is recorded in
its proper place; while, among other things, Mr. Milliken's "Childe
Chappie" was claimed, as was afterwards ascertained, by a literary ghoul
whose strange taste it was to batten upon the comic writings of others,
and to use his borrowed reputation to ingratiate himself with the fair
and trusting sex.

Not a few of _Punch's_ jokes have been sent in by men who were destined
a little later on to become members of the Staff and diners at the
Table. Mr. Furniss's first drawing, as is duly explained elsewhere, was
re-drawn by Mr. du Maurier, and Mr. Burnand's initial contribution--a
little sketch of 'Varsity life--was re-drawn by Leech. But quite a
number of non-professional wits and humorists have acted as
disinterested friends, whose benevolent assistance has gone far to
colour _Punch_ with the characteristics of their own _vis comica_. The
chief of these no doubt is Mr. Joseph Crawhall, of Newcastle, whose
devoted service to his friend Charles Keene was an important factor in
the artist's _Punch_-life. From his other friends, Mr. Birket Foster and
Mr. Andrew Tuer, Keene was in receipt of a great number of jokes--from
the latter they came almost as regularly as the weekly paper. It was
also from Mr. Tuer that he received, among many others, that happy
thought, so happily realised, of the