The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 12, 1905, Page 4

> THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. o is a tricky thing. rere was time when e was comic supple- color on the g doorstep ere we ere wag no w Kid, no Happy Hooligan, no and Leander, njammer and terrible no Alphonse nor ost of peo- familiar to neighbors’, on . our heroes in the door oftener and we have ough -it was the wad the There his she comes in for the =pe- —opens ast, sitting 1n the sorted out youth was ay morning know that e aid of d to grow up witho supplem he aia he would harbor > oldsters hang on paper” breakfas e, and make It s s0 early paper” of scorn when c that he because to see the comic llers an institution, and established, like the he quick lunch counter. rs old, yet it is b tablished doesn’t subscribe t doesn't have so remote that n e erly walting to at it's due. ment did not spring responsive supply to Yet the comic supy to being as the a demand On- the contrary, it is a creation that has created its own demand. Ten years ago there were no comic sup- plements nor comic supplement artists. Ten years ago, or, to be punctiliously exact, eleven years ago, In the evolution of the newspaper the color press was pro- duced, that is & press that would print in several colors and that would register; that means, that it would print those colors where the artist in drawing his picture had designated they should go. Before that there were experimental color presses that would print in colors, but the colors would land in the most unex- pected places, placing the red of Hooll- gan's nose and of Buster Brown's tie— hed there been a Hooligan or a Buster in those days—quite without the outlines defining either nose or -tle. When &t last the color press was per- fected so that it would print the red of Hooligan's nose where Hooligan wore his nose, there was & conclave of editors in the editorial sanctum of the newspaper that had secured the first color press. They had gathered to decide the mo- mentous question: ““What shall we do with the color press, now that we have it?” One was for this thing, one was for that, and almost the fate befell it of being used for printing a “woman’s sup- plement” of fashions. The day was saved for the comic supplement by a young man whose observant eyes had noted the fact that most of the men coming down town the cars in the morning had their morning papers folded over to make the “funny column” eesy reading, and most of them when going home at night turned to ‘the funny columns of their evening papers after reading the sports or finan- cial news, according to their particular tastes and interests. 'Whet's the matter with American humor—and humorists? What's the mat- on ter with making a color supplement of * humor?” he asked. His fellow-editors fell upon his neck in joy for his solution—as rapidly as they could resign their own pet schemes; and thus the comic supplement scheme came into ‘being. comic ~ Then came the question -of comic sup- plement ar Apparently carefully laid there was none born and away In cotton wool awaiting the emergency. So, with the usual newspaper enterprise, they. were made. The ‘very first of these whose history will serve for a sample was Richard F. Outeault, ' known as “Dick” ~Outcault everywhere except on the payroll. Dick Outcault was the first of the comic supplement artists who madé = a hit, whose pencil creation became a natlonal, vea, even an international character. He was a young New Yorker living the semi-Bohemian, semi-domestic life of the young man with ambition who must coin his brain for rent, car fare, clothes, etcet- era. He had studied art in Paris rather cas- ally, and when he came back to New York and had a wife, a baby, and 8 Har- lem flat to provide for. he utliized his knowledge of art as an ilustrator. He worked a draftsman, making mechan- ical drawings for the .Electrical World and the Street Railway Journal, and he worked out page drawings that he tied up in manila paper and carried down to the newspaper offices under his arm to submit to the heads of newspaper art de- partments.. Sometimes he got $15 for one of . them, and .sometimes he didn't; 'but more often than not he made the ex- change, for he was both a good fellow and a good workman. By way of rel tion from the mechan- ical drawing, and the page pictures of serfous subjects. he’ * scratched - little “com on_left-over -bits of “bristol board, and the editor of 'Truth séeing them, he sold them to that frivolous and forward weekly and got encouragement. Because of his little “‘comies” in Truth the editor of the first comic supplement seized upon him as the likeliest material to manufacture into a comic supplement artist. - It was wonderful editorial pre- science. For the first comic ' supplement Dick Outcault borrowed a suggestion from stage comedy, from the song ‘Maggie Murphy's Home” in an Ed&- Harrigan play. One line in this ¥ong, “Down in Hogan's alley,” gave Outcault his cue. He created. a number of charfacters for Hogan’s alley, and with them reproduced gvery, current event fram the Hogan's alley point of view. The idea caught on st enough to be accepted as ‘‘good.”, had almost run its course, and was getting ready to give way to sc nething else when ©Outcault's first hit was made. In his workroom in his Harlem flat he was biting his .pencil quite vainly hor some new twist to give to Hogan's alley for that week. When in the midst of his publicity his small son walked in in his little nightie grinning happily and dis- playing -his new. teeth. Outcanlt popped him into the Hogan's Alley Company— 3 wo teeth, grin and all. A happy inspiration led the color man to print the new kiddy's nightie yellow, and lo! upon the next Sunday morning the Yellow Kid was born—the most famous kid, in litera- ture, if we may stretch thé term so far as to include the comic supplement in literature. The Yellow Kid was born and “Dick” Outcault’s fortune was made. By accident! Well, perhaps it was by accident—but it was an accident that depended upon Dick Outcault’s peculiar gift for seeing things just so. Think how many kiddies, with two teeth, a nightie and a grin have been seen by their papas. without ever before producing a Yellow Kid. The Yellow Kid meant everything to the man who made him. Before the day of the comic supple- ment Outcault was glad enough to get $15 for a page drawing. The comic supplement tacked a cipher to . the value of his page drawings and made it worth $150 to him to be funny where it had been only worth 315 to be seri- ous, but the Yellow Kid brought opu- lence. He became a furore with the public. Rival papers .outbid each other for Outcault and wrangled over him. Imli- tators stole his creation and brought lawsuits upon their heads. The Yellow Kid was dramatized and placarded upon billboards and breakfast foods, on dry goods. and ,wet. There were Yellow Kid necktles and games, Yel- low ' Kid commodities of every kind that hoped to float into notice with his popularity, and the Yellow, Kid, being copyrighted, Dick Outcault had a rake- down on his every appearance In the Wway of royalty. But the Yellow Kid, in the very na- ture ‘of things, wore himself out and Mr. Outcault was left in the lurch for a successor while successful comic supplement artists were tickling his public and getting the laughs and the dollars. Again there was a lucky accident. Again Mr. Outcault realized the ad- vantage of being a family man. The original of the Yellow Kid, like the pictured Imp of popularity, had dis- appeared. A little disconsolately he admitted it to himself. But—what was this in his place? What funny, sturdy little chap was this, everlastingly in- venting iniquities to drive his father and mother mad? A successor to the Yellow Kid! And right here in his own household— grown for the purpose, as it were! So—Buster Brown happened! So Buster Brown—the most perva- sive youngster of them all—came into being. Buster Brown broke out in the comic supplements, Buster Brown invaded the nurseries, spread over his own country, invaded Europe. And now we not only have whole pages of Buster Brown In colors on Sunday morning, we have Buster Browns on every block, in almost every family; we have Buster Brown stockings and hats and ties and suits and belts: Buster Brown on the stage and in the show windows, at fancy dress parties and in amateur theatricals and llving pie- tures. The interest in Buster Brown ex- tends to his creator or inventor, or portrayer, or whatever you please to call Mr. Outcault. The youngsters who gobble the comic suppléments and, their grown-ups, of course, who like to give the children everything their little hearts want, do not only demand Buster Brown in all his variety, they demand the maker of Buster Brown, too. He has to be trotted out and exhibited to them. but . And the result is that Dick Outcault, the first of the comic supplement ar- tists, . who has all he can do making pictures of Buster Brown and raking in the dollars Buster Brown brings him —it is estimated that there are about 75,000 of them per year has had to go on a lecture tour to satisfy the de- mand. He has to go from city to city and town to town and get out on the stage and tell stories and draw Buster Brown pictures. “T didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Outcault said when some one asked him how he happened to begin lecturing. “It was a case of simply answering a demand that I couldn’t ignore any longer. I don't know why any one should want to see me, but In some way people have learned that I qould tell stories as well as draw pictures. Some one who has heard me of an evening at home must have given the news away. This, coupled with an expressed desire on the part of the cHildren everywhere to see the man who made Buster Brown, made me finally consent to give a cartoon lecture or two, and here I am launched on a career. that I don't know how I am to get out of. “The trouble began years ago when Buster Brown was in his infancy. I com- menced; to-get letters like this: “ ‘Dear Mr.' Outcault: I like Buster Brown, and I would like to see the man who draws him. Can’t you come to my house some time and make a picture of Buster ‘for my very own? I would give anything to have it.’ “This is just a sample of what I got, and some were more insistent. Further- more, children began to find out where 1 lived, and many an afternoon when I've got home I've found proud but mis- .guided parents at my house with their youngsters, who demanded that I chat with them, tell them all about Buster and also say whether or not they were not- the original Buster Browns from whom I got my Inspiration. “I like children—every one who knows me knows that—but this got to be a nuisance. Finally, about three months ago, 1 got a letter from an orphan asy- Jum’'s manager in Brooklyn, telling me ‘that he was going to bring his entire col- lection of youngsters over to Flushing to see me, and that I had better be at home or they would tear the place down in their enthusiasm. “I wrote back to him not to bring his asylum, I would come there instead. And I did, and gave my talk on Buster and other comic little chaps, illustrating my stories by drawing pictures on a black- board. The entertainment seemed to make a hit, and the manager of the asy- lum told Mr. John Leffler, the well-known director of lecturers and concert singers, about it. A “From that time on I got no peace until I agreed to make a tour of ‘the country, giving my lecture. And that's all there is to It.” ° > Lecturing, much against his wish and to the temporary destruction of his home life, isn't all that Buster ‘Brown has got Mr. Outcault in for. He has put a pretty heavy responsibility on him, for there are parents ‘all over this country and in parts of Europe ‘who think they can trace thelr youngsters’ naughtiness direct to Buster Brown inspiration. Here is one story that Mr. Outéault tells on that score: 5 “Recently,” says Mr. Outcault, “‘while I was lunching in a hotel in New York, NE of the most interesting of the After a delightful globe-trotters to discover San Francisco in his travels is young Fred Ottofy, who has just put his girdle around the globe. Fred Ottofy is the youngest of the round-the-world "5y travelers who has made the trip by himself, for he has not only been around the world once at the age of 12, but is on his way around the second time. He is what sclentific folk would catalogue as a rara avis among youth- ful globe-trotters, for he isn’'t a run- away boy, out seeing the sights for himself; he isn't tramping his way around the world ' in search of wealth and - adventure, . and he isn’t working ' “his way around - be- cause .he got tired staying at home and going to school in the pro- saic way parents insist upon boys do- ing. He isn't at all sort of boy traveler, but just a” keen- witted, wide-awake American boy, with steamship and railway tickets in his pocket, a money wallet carefully stowed away, a suit case in his hand, and a trunk in the hold or the bag- gage car. " But he is a lively ‘demonstration of the fact, that a twelve-year-old Ameri- can boy can go anywhere in the world without getting lost, kidnaped, way- laid or robbed, without being shipped like an express package with a handle with-care tag on him, and without having his mamma lying awake nights ‘worrying about him. JFred Ottofy has had a journey and 1:: experience that any boy might envy him. He made his round-the-world txip because his father Dr. Ottofy, is In Manila, one of the few practicing den- tists there, . Fred was born in Chicago and went to public school there. ' Several years ago his father went to the Orient to see what{ chances there were there for a | dentist, and when he established himself he sent for Fréd, who was living with relatives: and going to school in Chicago. They packed his trunk and his suit case, gave him his tickets to put in one vest pocket, his wallet full of money to put in another, a lot of good advice to re- - member, and kissed him good-by at th depot in Chicago. B Fred : " 80, in knickerbockers,: he started off _ay himself. He went to Vancouver, took ship there for. Yoko! got a glimpse of -way, had lulu by | T trips to St and Canton, just to. see the world'in pags- ing, and arrived at Manila, safe sound, without even a collar-button .ng/_c—au/ the story-book. 7”7 e BOY GLOBE-TROTTER with his visit father he again started on his way around the world, still in khickers. He was one of four passengers on a ‘sump steamer going from Manila to New York by way of Suez—a steamer belonging to the Standard Oil . Com- Ppany, carrying all sorts of merchan- dise to all sorts of ports, and he says: “I had the time of my life on her. I learned more about geography on that trip than I'd been able to learn at school in all my life. “Her name was the Kennebec, and she was a big ship, carrying, it seemed to me, an immepse cargo. There were only four passehgers on her, 50 we .got pretty well acquainted. The officers were friendly and we had the run of the ship. Oh, it beat traveling on a crowded . liner. I guess there wasn't any part of that ship that I didn’t see before the voyage was over—nor any- thing at any of the ports we stopped at that I missed seeing. “We went from Manila to Singapore and’ stopped there a week, unloading our own cargo and taking on tin. We took on ever so many ‘toms of it in bricks, and every brick of it was worth $85. Every day while we were there I went ashore in. a sampan—we were anchored out in the bay—and explored the town. : “Then we went on up to Penang, an- other town on the Malay Peninsula, and staid there twelve hours. I was taking a rickshaw ride through the strests of Penang and ran right into a boy I had known at school in Yoko- hama. Maybe you think that wasn't a surprise? i “We saw a waterspout while we were at Penang and gnother on the Indian Ocean on our way to Ceylon. We passed very close to Ceylon, but didn't touch. We went through the Straits of Bab-el Mandeb and across the Red Sea; we stopped at Suez for six hours and took on searchlights; we staid at Port Said twelve hours and I saw the milk- men with their goat herds, milking a goat for each customer that wanted milk. We had ten hours at Algiers and I took the ce to explore Africa and I saw eve ing in the town that 1 could find. Mediterranean, of “We crossed the 1 the course, and 1 saw Gibraltar—that’ . thing I saw on the trip. nt five days in New York sightsee- :::. and I saw everything I could find out about there from Grant's Tomb to— to. Chis cago—and that completed one ring to all the shows I had time for. “Then I -took the Limited around the earth for me.. - v /. “I had no adventures—never fell over- board, never missed a steamer or a a gentleman approached my table and asked If I were Mr. Outcault. I-didn't deny the.allegation, and the man handed me, his_card. “41 want to see you on a matter of business, Mr. Outcault,” said *he. Tm the father of a young gentleman of 7, who in-many respects Is the living pro- totype.of your Buster Brown. No, I'm not going to tell you how cute he is, or try to get you to Immortalize some of his pranks in. your drawings. It's just the other way. This small boy of mine waits all week for Buster to ap- pear in the Sunday papers so that he can get Inspiration for some new prank. ‘Whatever Buster does in the plctures my boy tries to imitate, and he does it train, never had my pocket picked or lost my ticket, put up at good hotels wherever I stopped over, and—Oh, pshaw! I only did what any American boy my size can do! “Where’d I rather live after being around the world? Why, in America, of course—in New York or Chicago, pretty successfully, too, I don’t mind ;:fil;ay‘:’su- But its all right. for the a rule, are boyish mischiet. ke o “ ‘Now, however, I've got a scheme, and if you fall into it I'll make it worth your whniie. My next door neighboe is @ crank, and, what's worse, he seem. to single me out as his speciai wey. I'm a law-abiding citizen and don't want to retaliate, but I've got a plan to get even. If I could get the idea into my small boy's head to play a series of tricks on the old ehap his life might get so miserable that he'd move. Now, here’s where you come in. I can't go to my boy and put these ideas into his head—that wouldn't be fatheriy. But if you will have Buster play some tricks of the kind I'll indicate my kid will follow them to the letter and he's sure to pick out the man next door as his victim. “‘You go ahead on my ldeas, make the pictures and print 'em and if the plan works I'll give you & thousand dollars. What say? “Much as I like money,” sald Mr. Out- cault, “I was obliged to turn the man's propesition down. For all I know, my own boy would Iimitate the Buster tricks and I might be picked as the vietim.” Still Mr. Outcault doesn't held any grudge against the ofiginal of Buster. He seems to think pretty well of him, as this “credit” that he giw to him will show: “There is nothing that you can In- vent about children half so funny as- the things they really do,” he says. “Try as you may, you can’t imagine stranger pranks than those they invent for themselves. For instance, I have sat at my table for hours at a time try- ing to think of something for Buster to do, only to give it up in despair, when at the last moment something that my youthful son, Dicky, has done will reach my ears and I'll make & page drawing of the incident. “I recall ome-time in particular. I was digging away at my brain in vab when Mrs! Outcault rushed inte the room, exclaiming, 'Oh, Dickey has just done a dreadful tfing and I told him you'd punish him dreadfully for it “What 1s it?" I askeéd, wo whether he had set fire to the barn or painted the horse green again. “He's dressed the cat and her four kit- tens up in Mary Jane’s dolls’ clothes, and they're down in the village squars, scar- ing horses and everything. The hired man can’t catch them.” “Good!"™ I shouted, to my wife’s aston- ishment. Don’t interrupt me again for an hour.” And without further argument or explanation I began to make a series of drawings about the incident, giving Buster credit for ft. It turned out to be one of the funniest I ever made. “As to punishing Dickey, I bought him a WBicycle for having furnished me with the inspiration. It was worth it." Dick Outcault has a fine home, and so much money invested and sfill rolling in that he needs a secretary and a lawyer, as_well as his clever wife, to look after it for him—while he goes .on making more. He owes it all to the comie supplement. If it hadn’t been for that lucky invention and perfection of the color press, if it badn’t been for that far-seeing comic supplement editor, if it hadn't been for the great American public that takes Lo humor as a duck to water—and also if it badn’t been for Dick Outcault’s knmack of seeing things, Yellow Kids and. Buster Browns, and such things, in jussé the way he does—perhaps Dick Outcault would have gone on to this very day drawing page pictures and getting $15 aplece for them. Who knows? A A A A A A A . where things are doing. I haven’t seen any place I like better than my own country.” Fred Ottofy went on the transport Sherman the other day on his second trip around the world, for he says, no matter how long he stays in Manila, he is coming “home” when he is a man.