Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 6).djvu/89

pages, but it may be said in a word that he was received and welcomed everywhere, not only on account of the admirable reputation of his father, but more owing to his own personal geniality and versatility.

The Drawing-Room.
From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry.

"I did not want to sit at the Post-office all my life," said Mr. Yates, "and I began to look about me for a fresh pasture where fame might be gathered. It was the reading of 'Pendennis' that suggested journalism, and my first real effort was a set of verses—the idea for which came as I sat in the family pew in church!—which were accepted by Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, the proprietor and editor of Ainsworth's Magazine. My first paid engagement was on the Court Journal, at the munificent salary of £1 a-week!"

The Silver Birthday Bowl.

Work soon began to come in. The young author's talent was recognised and his pen appreciated and paid for. His hours were respectable—ten till four—at the Post-office, but they were drawn out into the early hours of the morning in his anxiety to succeed. His pen was soon employed in all the leading newspapers and periodicals of the day, and he became dramatic critic of the Daily News. His first novel was "Broken to Harness." He was editor of Temple Bar at the time, and having failed to find an author to write a serial, buckled to himself, the result being a work of excellent merit followed by such dramatic productions as "Black Sheep," "Wrecked in Port," "The Forlorn Hope," etc. It would be impossible to give in the scope of this paper a detailed list of all Mr. Edmund Yates's works—his appearances and remarkable lectures on the stage and platform—and how he came to establish the World. His idea of the conducting of that paper always was, and always has been, that it should not be merely a light and flippant collection of paragraphs, but that every article in its pages should have some definite end in view—be it social or political. Indeed, of such moment are the political articles in the columns of the World considered, that one may venture to think that it was their influence which suggested his being selected by the Carlton Club as a member. I saw an album—the World album—containing the portraits of past and present contributors to Mr. Yates's organ. I promised Mr. Yates not to reveal their names, but they are treasure-houses of influential information, indeed.

But all the time I was sitting in the study at Brighton my mind was constantly running on the man whose statuette rested on a table immediately before us. It was during a lull in the conversation—the faithful Laker, who "knows where to find everything," wanting some letters signed—that I crossed to the