Complete Humor of John Kendrick Bangs

An American author, editor and satirist.

Contents

The Pursuit Of The House-boat

The Idiot

The Enchanted Typewriter

R. Holmes & Co.

The Autobiography Of Methuselah

Ghosts I Have Met And Some Others

Mr. Munchausen

Alice In Blunderland

A House-boat On The Styx

The Inventions Of The Idiot

The Genial Idiot

The Water Ghost And Others

The Idiot At Home

The Bicyclers And Three Other Farces

Coffee And Repartee

The Dreamers

A Little Book Of Christmas

Andiron Tales

Mrs. Raffles

From Pillar To Post

Over The Plum Pudding

Bikey The Skicycle And Other Tales Of Jimmieboy

Toppleton's Client

A Proposal Under Difficulties

In Camp With A Tin Soldier

Half-hours With The Idiot

Mr. Bonaparte Of Corsica

A House-Boat on the Styx-

The book begins with Charon, ferryman of the Styx startled--and annoyed--by the arrival of a house boat on his mystical river. At first afraid that the boat will put him out of business, he later finds out that he is to be appointed the boat's janitor. What follows are eleven stories set on the house boat. There is no central theme; each chapter features various souls from history and mythology, and in the twelfth chapter the house boat disappears, seguing into the sequel, Pursuit of the House-Boat.

The Inventions of the Idiot-

The idiot is the same old idiot, if a trifle worn. As an inventive idiot he is in his element although of all his numerous inventions he complains that none has been realized. Probably there is a deep psychological reason for that for they were all of the "Dreamaline" sort. For a few cents everyone was to be able to be what he wanted to be, the reasoning of the idiot being that " if you feel like a millionaire you are as happy as a millionaire; happier in fact, for you are not even bothered by cutting the coupons." The other members of Mrs. Smithers-Pedagogue's high class home for single gentlemen we can report to be just the same. "Anyone who thinks that discord exists at this table doesn't know what he is talking about. Even the oil and the vinegar mix as the oleaginous appearance of the vinegar in the caster testifies," remarked the Idiot. While the Idiot was endeavoring to promote himself into the Idiot Publishing company they refused to take any stock in him, but when it was rumored that he was willing to be a Consolidated Gas company that was a different matter. "It would be something to turn out an honest gas company," urged the Idiot.

A Little Book of Christmas-

Mr. Bangs has caught the spirit of the "Christmas Carols," and phrased it in his own style, so well liked in America. Not in a long time have we had Christmas stories so good as "The Conversion of Hetherington,""The Child Who Had Everything But...," "Santa Claus and Little Billie," and "The House of the Seven Santas,"--the four stories in this volume. Mr. Bangs' sense of humor never fails, his diction is well liked, and in these tales he has woven a strain of pathos which is not unfitting.