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[Illustration: Book Cover]




[Illustration: "COME RIGHT UP"--Page 47]




PEEPS AT
PEOPLE
_Being Certain Papers
from the Writings of_
ANNE WARRINGTON
WITHERUP. _Collected, by_
JOHN KENDRICK BANGS
_With Illustrations by_
EDWARD PENFIELD


[Illustration]


NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1899




BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

       *       *       *       *       *

GHOSTS I HAVE MET, AND SOME OTHERS. With Illustrations by NEWELL, FROST,
and RICHARDS. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.

PASTE JEWELS. Being Seven Tales of Domestic Woe. 16mo, Cloth,
Ornamental, $1.00.

THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSE BOAT. Being Some Further Account of the Doings
of the Associated Shades, under the Leadership of Sherlock Holmes, Esq.
Illustrated by PETER NEWELL. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.

A HOUSE-BOAT ON THE STYX. Being Some Account of the Divers Doings of the
Associated Shades. Illustrated by PETER NEWELL. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental,
$1.25.

THE BICYCLERS, AND THREE OTHER FARCES. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth,
Ornamental, $1.25.

A REBELLIOUS HEROINE. A Story. Illustrated by W. T. SMEDLEY. 16mo,
Cloth, Ornamental, Uncut Edges, $1.25.

MR. BONAPARTE OF CORSICA. Illustrated by H. W. MCVICKAR. 16mo, Cloth,
Ornamental, $1.25.

THE WATER GHOST, AND OTHERS. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental,
$1.25.

THE IDIOT. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.00.

THREE WEEKS IN POLITICS. Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth, Ornamental, 50 cents.

COFFEE AND REPARTEE. Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth, Ornamental, 50 cents.

       *       *       *       *       *

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.

       *       *       *       *       *

Copyright, 1898, by HARPER & BROTHERS.




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE
  NANSEN                                                               3
  MR. HALL CAINE                                                      17
  EMPEROR WILLIAM                                                     33
  MR. ALFRED AUSTIN                                                   45
  ANDREW LANG                                                         59
  ZOLA                                                                75
  SIR HENRY IRVING                                                    89
  IAN MACLAREN                                                       107
  RUDYARD KIPLING                                                    123
  THE DE RESZKES                                                     139
  HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ                                                 155
  GENERAL WEYLER                                                     171




ILLUSTRATIONS


  "COME RIGHT UP"                                         _Frontispiece_
  "I BOARDED A PJINE RJAFT"                                _Facing p._ 6
  "'MR. NANSEN?' SAID I"                                               8
  "DINED WITH THE CABINET"                                            12
  "'IS THIS GLOOMSTER ABBEY?' I ASKED"                                18
  HE APPEARED!                                                        20
  IN THE WORKSHOP                                                     22
  EXAMINING HIMSELF                                                   36
  THE IMPERIAL BAND                                                   40
  "'WE ARE HAVING OUR PORTRAITS PAINTED'"                             42
  "'A BEAUTIFUL WORKSHOP,' SAID I"                                    50
  CONSULTING HIS CHINOMETER                                           54
  TRADE-MARK. NONE GENUINE WITHOUT IT                                 60
  IN THE MEREDITH SHOP                                                66
  EDITING "HERRICK"                                                   68
  SEEKING ZOLA                                                        76
  CONSULTING "LA PATRIE"                                              78
  "'SAVE ME!' SHE CRIED"                                              80
  "I SAT QUIETLY IN THE BOX"                                          94
  "'SEND THE PROPERTY-MAN HERE!' HE CRIED"                            98
  "'IT WAS ALL ARRANGED BEFOREHAND, MISS'"                           102
  DRESSED FOR THE PART                                               110
  THE PURSUIT                                                        112
  AT HOME                                                            116
  INTERCEPTED THE STEAMER                                            124
  ON THE LANYARD DECK                                                126
  "HE WAS ERECTING A GRAND-STAND"                                    134
  IT WAS A SUPERB BUILDING                                           142
  READY FOR THE STORM                                                146
  MELBA, THE DAIRY-MAID                                              148
  ASKED A POLICEMAN                                                  160
  THE AUTHOR IN HIS STUDY                                            162
  "ONE MUST BE INTRODUCED"                                           166
  "A RATHER STUNNING BANDERILLO OPENED THE DOOR"                     172
  IN HIDING                                                          174
  "I AM TOO OLD A SPANIARD TO BE CAUGHT LIKE THAT"                   178




PEEPS AT PEOPLE




NANSEN


It was in the early part of February last that, acting under
instructions from headquarters, I set forth from my office in London
upon my pilgrimage to the shrines of the world's illustrious. Readers
everywhere are interested in the home life of men who have made
themselves factors in art, science, letters, and history, and to these
people I was commissioned to go. But one restriction was placed upon me
in the pursuit of the golden Notoriety, and that was that I should spare
no expense whatever to attain my ends. At first this was embarrassing.
Wealth suddenly acquired always is. But in time I overcame such
difficulties as beset me, and soon learned to spend thousands of
dollars with comparative ease.

And first of all I decided to visit Nansen. To see him at home, if by
any possibility Nansen could be at home anywhere, would enable me to
open my series interestingly. I remembered distinctly that upon his
return from the North Pole he had found my own people too cold for
comfort. I called to mind that, having travelled for months seeking the
Pole, he had accused my fellow-countrymen of coming to see him out of
"mere curiosity," and I recalled at the same time that with remarkable
originality he had declared that we heated our railway trains to an
extent which suggested his future rather than his past. Wherefore I
decided to visit Nansen to hear what else he might have to say, while
some of the incidents of his visit were fresh in our minds.

The next thing to discover, the decision having been reached, was as to
Nansen's whereabouts. Nobody in London seemed to know exactly where he
might be found. I asked the manager of the house in which I dwelt, and
he hadn't an idea--he never had, for that matter. Then I asked a
policeman, and he said he thought he was dancing at the Empire, but he
wasn't sure. Next I sought his publishers and asked for his banker's
address. The reply included every bank in London, with several trust
companies in France and Spain. To my regret, I learned that we Americans
hold none of his surplus.

"But where do you send his letters?" I demanded of his publisher, in
despair.

"Dr. Nansen has authorized us to destroy them unopened," was the reply.
"They contain nothing but requests for his autograph."

"But your letters to him containing his royalties--where do they go?" I
demanded.

"We address them to him in our own care," was the answer.

"And then?" I queried.

"According to his instructions, they are destroyed unopened," said the
publisher, twisting his thumbs meditatively.

It seemed hopeless.

Suddenly an idea flashed across my mind. I will go, I thought, to the
coldest railway station in London and ask for a ticket for Nansen. A man
so fastidious as he is in the matter of temperature, I reasoned, cannot
have left London at any one of their moderately warm stations. Where the
temperature is most frigid, there Nansen must have gone when leaving, he
is such a stickler for temperature. Wherefore I went to the Waterloo
Station--it is the coldest railway station I know--and I asked the agent
for a ticket for Nansen.

He seemed nonplussed for a moment, and, to cover his embarrassment,
asked:

"Second or third class?"

"First," said I, putting down a five-pound note.

"Certainly," said he, handing me a ticket to Southampton. "Do you
think you people in the States will really have war with Spain?"

I will not dilate upon this incident. Suffice it to say that the ticket
man sent me to Southampton, where, he said, I'd be most likely to find a
boat that would carry me to Nansen. And he was right. I reached
Sjwjcktcwjch within twenty-four hours, and holding, as I did, letters of
introduction from President McKinley and her Majesty Queen Victoria,
from Richard Croker and Major Pond, Mr. Nansen consented to receive me.

[Illustration: "I BOARDED A PJINE RJAFT"]

He lived in an Esquimau hut on an ice-floe which was passing the winter
in the far-famed Maelstrom. How I reached it Heaven only knows. I
frankly confess that I do not. I only know that under the guidance of
Svenskjold Bjonstjon I boarded a plain pjine rjaft, such as the
Norwegians use, and was pjaddjled out into the seething whirlpool, in
the midst of which was Nansen's more or less portable cottage.

When I recovered I found myself seated inside the cottage, which, like
everything else in the Maelstrom, was waltzing about as if at a military
ball or Westchester County dance.

"Well," said my host, looking at me coldly. "You are here. _Why_ are you
here?"

[Illustration: "'MR. NANSEN?' SAID I"]

"Mr. Nansen?" said I.

"The very