Complete Humor

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.