Introducing Ching-Ching

“Handsome Harry,” by E. Harcourt Burrage, first appeared in a serial in the Boys’ Standard, No. 20, March 18, 1876, and was later published in penny numbers as “Handsome Harry of the Fighting Belvedere” by Hogarth House in 28 parts in 1880. “Handsome Harry of the Fighting Belvedere” was re-published in America in The Boys of New York Supplement, Vol. X, No. 444, Feb. 16, 1884. Further adventures were serialized in the story paper “Ching-Ching’s Own,” published by W. Lucas beginning June 14, 1888 and then issued in penny numbers by “Best for Boys” publications. The Ching-Ching sequence for these was as follows >

“Best for Boys” editions:

1. Cheerful Ching-Ching 11 nos. (sequel to “Handsome Harry.”)

2. Daring Ching-Ching; or, the Mysterious Cruise of the Swallow 18 nos.

3. Wonderful Ching-Ching, His Further Adventures 30 nos.

4. Young Ching-Ching (A Worthy Son of a Worthy Sire)

5. Ching-Ching Yarns No. 1, “Ching-Ching on the Trail.” Further tales in this pocket series were written by Burrage but were not Ching-Ching stories.

Charley and Tim at Scarum School

Charley and Tim at Scarum School by the author of “Ralph Rattleton,” “Ocean of Ice,” &c. &c. London: Hogarth House. Charley and Tim was written by E. Harcourt Burrage and illustrated by “Phiz” and Harry Maguire. “Ralph Rattleton” appeared in no. 64 of The Young Briton, Nov, 26, 1870. That issue George Emmett took over the editing from his brother William Emmett Laurence.

Tom Tartar at Home and Abroad

“The Marvelous Adventures of Tom Tartar at Home and Abroad,” published by W. Lucas, 26 Dean Street, Fetter-lane, ran 544 pages of double-column tiny print in 17 penny numbers. In book form, complete, the cost was one shilling. The first printing, as “Tom Tartar at School” ran in the penny paper “Ching-Ching’s Own” about 1889. Tom’s adventures took him from school in England to Siberia, Algeria, and finally to a face to face adventure with the Mahdi.



















"The decapitation was so perfectly done that the head lingered upright near its original position a moment ere it fell."

Old Boys' Book Collectors Part Four

Vanity Fair an Amateur Magazine, edited by Joseph Parks, ran 31 numbers in 3 volumes from June 1917 to May & June 1927 then changed title to “The Collector’s Miscellany a bimonthly Journal for Collectors.” I don’t know when “The Collector’s Miscellany” ended its run but it was still being published in Sept 1951 by Joseph Parks. It was billed as “Ye Official Organ of Ye Amateur Press Club.”

“It has often been asserted that the creations of the author’s brain become living creatures to him. This is conspicuously the case with Ching-Ching, who has become to his author a companion from whom it is very hard to part -- a friend in every sense -- a boon companion in many a lonely hour.” - E. Harcourt Burrage, L’Envoi, on the last page of “Young Ching-Ching.”

E. Harcourt Burrage was reported in 1913 to have been working on his memoirs with a chapter dealing with the old bohemian journalists connected with old boys' literature. Unfortunately this was never published and is probably lost. Some of the manuscript may have ended up in Vanity Fair as in the following excerpt.

One curious point was that I found the same excerpt in an old clipping I found in a Ching-Ching penny dreadful. Unlike the one page digest sized layout seen below, this clipping ran in 3 columns side by side and looked to have been clipped from a tabloid sized newspaper. The masthead on the top read Vanity Fair.

A. Harcourt Burrage was probably a typo as explained in the Inkdrops column.



Old Boys' Books

Ching-Ching Memoirs

By E. Harcourt Burrage

(continued from page 136).

Many well known characters in books have actually walked this mortal earth. In a certain part of London, not far from Fleet Street, near the close of the 19th century, a Chinaman lingered at the Street corners, whose soul occupation was to occasionaly distribute bills for a tradesman in the near vicinity. Tea advertisements did he cast to the four winds , little thinking that he was himself to become very strong literary drink for boys.He was personated in a younger form in the "Best For Boys ", and owing to his entire ignorance of english , inocentely advertised his own brave deeds to the effect that they could weekly be read for the small sum of 1d. In short, he was the original "Ching-Ching".

As before mentioned, in the early part of 1888 this journal made its appearance, and very soon obtained for itself a very large sale. The Chinese advertiser became aware of it too ! Some of the readers who first heard of its existence first-hand from the Chinaman surmised that he was in days gone by "Ching-Ching", and honoured him, as they thought, in a very fitting way by "Spin a yarn Ching ", "How's Grunt"?, "I say, what a pig Eddard is".

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Master Editor, ( Eddard ).
Sir,
My fingers have been itching to pitch into you with the point of my pen, and now you are going to have it. I suppose you think yourself a mighty good sort of editor don't you, with all the latest improvements like a bicycle ? Well you are a nice sort, I must say. I should like you to tell what you mean by editing such a jolly paper as "Ching-Ching's Own". Just as I am writing this, there is a rap at the door and what do you think he hands in, my jolly prize photograph. I hope, Chingy, Sammy, Billy Grunt, are all right, but, dear Sir, I will let you into a great secret, my brother Lindsay is making Eddard a wooden leg for Christmas, and I am making a huge pin to insert in Eddard's leg- not his wooden one.

Who can wonder at Eddard being somewhat cantankerous after such epistles as these, but the old grumbler had a few sympathisers, and the following epistle was from a young lady. Truly such a letter must have made him blush, and when he died it must have been buried with him.

(To be Continued)

Thus does Ching-Ching's Memoirs end and I suppose we will never know what the young lady wrote to make Eddard blush. Eddard was described in Ching- Ching and his Chums as, “-a semi sea-faring looking man, with a wooden leg.” Other characters were Young Ching-Ching , Ching-Ching's son , Handsome Harry, Sampson, (or Sammy,) Bill Grunt, another old tar, and The Slapcrash Boys.

Old Boys' Book Collectors Part Three

“The London Journal that I knew ceased some years ago; but it was continued in several different forms, until with the issue dated 27 Jan1912, it finally disappeared as a separate publication after the title had been kept up for sixty-five years. It was merged in another weekly paper, full of interest and amusement, called Spare Moments, belonging to the same publishers, Messrs. C. and W. Bradley & Co. of Fetter Lane. They have been kind enough to answer some of a series of questions I put to them, whence I learn that they have a complete set of the London Journal, and also possess the woodblocks of the illustrations from which good proofs could still be taken. Gilbert’s illustrations in the reprints in book-form were printed from stereotype copies.” -- Ralph Thomas, N&Q 11s. VIII. 23 Aug 1913, p.142.



Associated with the old boys book collectors were collectors of a different sort, men like Ralph Thomas, who I introduced back in Part One under the name Oliver Hamst in an 1877 post to N&Q. I’m pleased to see that Thomas alluded to this old article on Highwayman Literature in a footnote (N&Q 11s. VII. 22 Mar 1913) thirty-six years later. He had apparently had a change of heart.

“On looking now at the illustrations to Miles’s ‘Dick Turpin,’ I think more of them than I used to do. They are no doubt rough, but they appear to me to be vigorous and full of life, and the execution as good as an artist and wood engraver could afford to put into them at the low price they were probably paid.”

Unlike the old boys book collectors, who favoured boys story papers, Ralph Thomas collected the London Journal for its John Gilbert illustrations. In 1913 Thomas began a long series of articles titled “Sir John Gilbert, J. F. Smith, and the London Journal.” I think its safe to say Frank Jay’s Peeps into the Past (1919) was largely inspired by Thomas’s original explorations. Thomas is often quoted in Peeps about such subjects as W. West’s Theatrical Prints, the Skelt’s, and the London Journal.

To begin we will first have a look at an article posted two years earlier by Herbert Clayton, “Sir John Gilbert as Illustrator,” which was taken up by Ralph Thomas and largely expanded upon. “Sir John Gilbert as Illustrator” appeared in N&Q on 30 Dec 1911.







“Sir John Gilbert, J. F. Smith, and the London Journal” runs to over twenty pages from 22 Mar 1913 to 17 Oct 1914, so I will just post the beginning of his informative articles and move on.















I don’t have much information on the activities of John James Wilson and the old boys book collectors from T. P.’s Weekly between 1913 and 1917. They probably sought out literary papers with letter columns where they could continue sharing information for their scrapbooks and attract new enthusiasts. John James Wilson contributed an article on "M.J. Errym" to a newspaper, Bootle Times 9 Jun 1916, probably on a Queries page. They may also have moved on to the pages of Spare Moments, which had a queries and replies page.

They were definitely in Vanity Fair an Amateur Magazine, edited by Joseph Parks, which ran 31 numbers in 3 volumes from June 1917 to May & June 1927 then changed title to The Collector’s Miscellany a bimonthly Journal for Collectors. I don’t know when The Collector’s Miscellany ended its run but it was still being published in March 1935.

In 1919 Spare Moments, which had absorbed the old London Journal, published Frank Jay’s brilliant book-length “Peeps into the Past; being a history of old-time periodicals, journals and books” in instalments. It ran from 26 Oct.1918 to 19 February 1921. Frank Jay wrote of this series of articles in 1922 that they appeared “in Spare Moments (London Journal supplement) ... the whole series of articles numbering 50, can be seen in the British Museum Library (Press number 11850, v. 33).” The publisher was F. A. Wickhart, 4, Crane Court, Fleet-street.

One of the contributors to Spare Moments was Herbert John Allingham, nephew of Albert John Allingham (Ralph Rollington). A caricature by Tom B. showing “Wild Uncle John” in a drunk and disheveled state appears in Julia Thorogood's 1991 book Margery Allingham a Biography.

Continued in our next...