Delphi Complete Works of Jerome K. Jerome (Illustrated) (Series Four) (512 page)

In the early days of their friendship Jerome confided to Wingrave that he was determined to accomplish four things in his lifetime, which were as follows:

(1)       
To edit a successful journal.

(2)      
To write a successful play.

(3)      
To write a successful book.

(4)     
To become a member of Parliament.

Jerome was a prodigious worker. After his day’s work at the office he would read and write far into the night, and would then take a book to bed with him. He contrived a sort of lantern into which he stuck a candle. This he hung at his bedside, and would sit up in bed reading and eating bread and jam until he was thoroughly tired and could not keep awake.

He qualified himself for journalistic work by getting an insight into every phase of human activity, and, like all budding journalists, he was prepared to go up in a balloon or down a coal-pit; he would dodge brick-ends in a riot or take his chance at a political meeting, or follow criminals to their dens with all the energy at his command in order to secure good “copy”.

Although Jerome had made much headway in literary work, he was persuaded by his employer to study for the law. He had heard of professional men writing books and plays. Why should not he combine law and literature? But his employer’s death put an end to this dream. His thoughts were now turned towards that other dream — the editor’s chair of a successful journal. He was unknown, and had no influence behind him; he knew that in order to succeed he would have to begin at the bottom and fight his way up step by step.

He would think out stories and essays as he walked about the streets; and stop near a street lamp to write down his thoughts. If he had written anything that he thought was amusing, he would read it over to a rather surly policeman whose acquaintance he had made; if it made
him
laugh he would go home satisfied with his achievement.

When a story was finished it would go the round of all known journals and magazines, only too often to be returned. At length, however, a story was accepted and published in a paper called
The Lamp.
Jerome, who always enjoyed telling a joke against himself, said: “The paper died soon afterwards.”

He had written stories on a variety of subjects without success. He now thought he would write one about himself — how he ran away and went on the stage — describing his experiences in various theatres and lodging-houses up and down the country. In three months this story, “On the Stage and Off”, was finished. After several magazines had refused it he offered it to a paper called
The Play.
The editor, after reading the story, shook hands with him, offered him a cigarette, and asked what he wanted for the serial rights. Jerome said he was willing to let him have it for nothing. The editor then shook hands with him again and gave him a
£5
note.

The story appeared in the journal regularly each week and created much interest. This was the first real step towards the distant chair.

Jerome was one of the first to realize that compulsory education would make a nation of readers. Formerly newspapers were limited in number and not widely read. Education was rapidly bringing about enormous circulations of the daily and weekly press and increasing the power of journalism. The expression “The Fourth Estate”, attributed to Lord Macaulay, indicated the influence of the press upon the life of the nation. As a profession it attracted men of the highest culture and intelligence.

It is said that Dr. Jowett, the famous Master of Balliol, once told his young men at meal-time that he had been requested by a distinguished newspaper proprietor to recommend a young man as a leader writer. Jowett stated that he had replied recommending one as a distinguished scholar with a good style, and another as being well up in history and modern literature. “No, no,” replied the proprietor. “I want none of these. I want a young man who can write good sense in highly bombastic language.” Dr. Jowett’s comment was: “I could have named him several, if it hadn’t been for the good sense.”

Jerome certainly possessed this quality. Moreover he had the journalistic instinct, and knew that success would depend upon his articles being racy and original rather than upon academic display.

The next forward step was when he became a contributor to a magazine called
Home Chimes.
He sent the first of his “Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow” to the editor, Mr. F. W. Robinson, who realized that there was a new note in his work. Jerome met with more kindness and encouragement from Mr. Robinson than he had been accustomed to, and it was agreed that he should contribute a number of “Idle Thoughts” (fourteen in all) for which he was paid a guinea each.

Among his fellow contributors to
Home Chimes
were Mark Twain, Swinburne, Coventry Patmore, Bret Harte, Coulson Kernahan, J. M. Barrie, Dr. Westland Marston and his blind son Philip, the poet. It was no small matter that a clerk living in lodgings on twenty-five shillings a week should find himself associated with some of the most eminent writers of the day.

In addition to “Idle Thoughts” Jerome was responsible for “Gossip’s Corner”. This proved to be a popular feature of the magazine. The articles were both humorous and serious, often displaying a rich imagination, and were much appreciated by the reading public.

At this time the poet Swinburne was interested in the poems of Miss E. Nesbit, and being anxious for them to be more widely known, mentioned the matter to Mr. F. W. Robinson. The latter suggested that a notice should appear in his own publication
Home Chimes.

“That will do,” said Swinburne, “a most admirable little magazine... who does the reviewing there?” Robinson replied that there was no review section, but he himself would write and work in a little paragraph about Miss Nesbit’s poems.

Swinburne, holding Robinson’s opinion on poetry as of small worth, was not satisfied by the promise of a paragraph, and asked: “Who else writes for you?”

“Jerome does ‘Gossip’s Corner’,” was the reply. “Jerome K. Jerome!” said Swinburne, “the man for whose delightful contributions — so fresh and joyous in their humour — we look with such interest. That portion of your Magazine, ‘Gossip’s Corner’ is very widely read. I think if you can persuade Mr. Jerome to say something about E. Nesbit’s book it would help much more than an isolated paragraph would.”

Thus it came about that a considerable part of “Gossip’s Corner” was devoted to the discovery of a new poet. This incident is taken from Mr. Coulson Kernahan’s deeply interesting book—” Swinburne as! Knew Him.” It shows that Jerome was held in high esteem by this eminent poet.

Here are two extracts from “Gossip’s Corner” which will serve to show the kind of writing that gained him recognition in the ‘Eighties.

BREAKFAST IN BED

“I like having my breakfast in bed, though I couldn’t tell you why I like it. The tray slants and all the things huddle up together at the far corner. The pepper caster gets into a state of nervous excitement, and, after you have got him out of the marmalade, he tumbles into the tea. You draw the bacon towards you, but before you can cut it, it gets away and rejoins the others, leaving you looking like a fool with a knife and fork in your hand. Then the egg drops from the spoon on to the bedclothes just before you can get it into your mouth; and the buttered toast falls inside, so that you can’t find it, and have to get out of bed and shake yourself, or they forget to give you a spoon, and, after ringing for five minutes and then getting out of bed and yelling over the banisters twice, you give it up and stir your tea with the handle of your knife, and eat the egg with the flat end of the fork. The tea tastes of salt and other things, is lukewarm and slops itself everywhere. The extraordinary garment that your wife has given you to put over your shoulders slips round and smothers everything. At this point your knee explodes, and your leg shoots up underneath the tray, and everything comes over on top of you, and when they come up to know if you want any more, you are sitting in the middle of the room picking egg-shell off your legs, and throwing away every chance you ever had of Heaven.”

ART

“I looked in at the Grosvenor the other day and studied my Millais. Do not be frightened dear ‘N or M’ (as the case may be) I am not an art critic. I am too fond of pictures to be that. I am not going to drive you mad with unity and composition, and brushwork and pigment, and atmosphere, and tones and equation, and lines. My views on art I generally express by saying: ‘Oh, here’s a jolly nice picture,’ or ‘I don’t think much of this one,’ or ‘The nose stands out well, doesn’t it?’ or ‘Why, it isn’t a bit like a cow, you know.’ I think Millais is an awfully good artist. I like his pictures because I
can
like them. Millais one can admire without being ‘artistic’.”

The year 1888 was an eventful one in Jerome’s life. In addition to his journalistic work his first book, “On the Stage and Off,” was published; he wrote three plays which were performed in London theatres, and he was married all in the same year. The lady who henceforth was to be the gracious companion of his life was Georgina Henrietta Stanley, daughter of Lieutenant Nesza of the Spanish Army; her mother was Irish. The marriage ceremony took place quietly and simply at St. Luke’s Church, Chelsea, and was performed by the Rev. F. Relton, whose son, Prebendary Relton, afterwards became vicar of Walsall, Jerome’s native town. George Wingrave was “best man”. Jerome and his wife resided for a time at Chelsea Gardens and then went to live at Goulds Grove, a pretty country place near Wallingford.

Wingrave felt the removal of his old friend very keenly. Speaking recently to the present writer, he said: “J. and I used to pass each other without recognition, but once a friend he was always a friend. We slept in the same bedroom for a number of years, we went long walks together, and trip after trip along the Thames, and I got to know him through and through, and can safely say that a more high-principled man I have never known. He never got into bed at night without saying his prayers, and I never heard him say a base word or utter an unclean thought. He was as true to his friends as he was to his own principles. I witnessed both the beginning and the ending of J.’s married life, and if there was one feature of his married life that stood out more prominently than another, it was his devotion to his wife.”

Both Mr and Mrs. Jerome shrank from the “limelight”. One hesitates, therefore, to draw aside the curtain of purely domestic affairs. Perhaps, however, it may be permitted to record the fact that the marriage was a most fortunate and happy one. Their steadfast affection for each other kept them entirely free from the deplorable quarrels which have cast their shadow over the married life of so many literary men.

The following is a letter written by Mr. Jerome to his niece, Mrs. Harry Shorland, on her marriage:

104, Chelsea Gardens, London, S.W.

April 3rd, 1891.

My dear Lizzie, Just a line to wish you and Harry a sweet and happy married life. It lies in your four hands to make this for yourselves, and you seem to me to have all the materials for the building of a fair future. You have both common sense and unselfishness, and in these two virtues are found the happiness of married life.

Excuse an old married man like myself advising you, but I do so hope to see you grow happier together each year. Don’t expect to live in clover-land, you know. Be always ready to meet little disappointments and worries, and to conquer them. Don’t either of you expect to find the other a perfect Angel; because if you do there will be bitter disappointment.

If you think of the other one a little more than of yourself — if you both try to give way to the other rather than assert yourselves, and if you both, instead of seeing the other one’s failings, try to find out your own, you are bound to keep your love fair to the end.

God bless you both and give you guidance and help you to help each other.

Ever your loving uncle, JEROME K. JEROME.

Here surely is the secret of a happy married life. There would be fewer failures if this simple homely counsel were followed. Jerome wrote: “Excuse an old married man like myself advising you,” etc. The humour of this is that he himself had only recently been married.

To return to the journalistic ladder, Jerome gained the next rung in 1892 when he became joint editor of
The Idler
with Robert Barr. Rudyard Kipling was at that time rapidly becoming famous, and there was some uncertainty whether Barr would ask Jerome or Kipling to join him in the editorship; but Barr and Jerome finally agreed to work together, and Kipling became a contributor to the magazine.

The business manager of
The Idler
was Robert Dunkerley, who afterwards wrote under the pseudonym “John Oxenham”, and published much acceptable verse during the Great War. The subeditor was Mr. G. B. Burgin, who became famous as a novelist. Among the contributors were Mark Twain, Morley Roberts, Bret Harte, Andrew Lang, Sir Gilbert Parker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I. Zangwill, Coulson Kernahan, W. W. Jacobs, D. Christie Murray, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Parker, Marie Corelli, and Eden Phillpotts. The latter belonged to a family of great Churchmen, and was regarded by Jerome as being, next to Thomas Hardy, the greatest living English novelist.