At the same time he was contributing single-panel cartoons to Life, Judge, Puck, Browning's Magazine and the Pleiades Club Year Book.

His first art job was in the stained glass shop of Joseph Hausleiter in Brooklyn, working alongside his brother Fred.

In 1898, he was hired as a news illustrator by the New York World, where he also drew such comics as The Little Red Schoolhouse, Butch the Butcher's Boy, The Perils of Submarine Boating, Clumsy Claude, Optimistic Oswald and The Kelly Kids.

The following year, he added several new strips to the original group: Our Hero's Hairbreadth Escapes, The Funny Side Gang, The Merry Nobles Three—They Can Never Agree.

[1][4] Kahles was an influence on several cartoonists and strips, including Harry Hershfield’s Desperate Desmond and Dauntless Durham of the U. S. A. and Ed Wheelan’s Midget Movies.

In 1931, at the age of 53, he died of angina pectoris at his home in Great Neck, Long Island, where he had lived for 13 years.