articles upon the American war,
written by an American, will not, however, be acceptable in this
journal, as the public here take a widely different view of the
contest from that entertained in your own country, and the feeling
of horror is deepening fast."

Undeterred by this frank avowal, I waited upon the publisher at the
appointed time,--a fine, athletic, white-haired Scotchman, whose name is
known where that of greater authors cannot reach, and who has written
with his own hand as much as Dumas _pere_. He met me with warm
cordiality, rare to Englishmen, and when I said--

"Sir, I do not wish the use of your paper to circulate my
opinions,--only my experiences," he took me at once to his editor, and
gave me a personal introduction. Fortunately I had brought with me a
paper which I submitted on the spot; it was entitled, "Literature of the
American War," collated from such campaign ballads as I could remember,
eked out with my own, and strung together with explanatory and critical
paragraphs. The third day following, I received this announcement in
shockingly bad handwriting:--

"D'r S'r,
"Y'r article will suit us.
"The ed. C. J."

For every word in this communication, I afterward obtained a guinea. The
money not being due till after the appearance of the article, I
anticipated it with various sketches, stories, etc., all of which were
largely fanciful or descriptive, and contained no paragraph which I wish
to recall. In other directions, I was less successful. Of two daily
journals to which I offered my services, one declined to answer my
letter, and the other demanded a quarto of credentials.

So I lived a fugitive existence, a practical illustration of Irving's
"Poor Devil Author," looking as often into pastry-shop windows, testing
all manner of cheap Pickwickian veal-pies, breakfasting upon a chop, and
supping upon a herring in my suburban residence, but keeping up pluck
and _chique_ so deceptively, that nobody in the place suspected me of
poverty.

I went for some American inventors, to a rifle ground, and explained to
the Lords of the Admiralty the merits of a new projectile; wrote letters
to all the Continental sovereigns for an itinerant and independent
embassador, and was at last so poor that my only writing papers were a
druggist's waste bill-heads. An article with no other "backing" than
this was fortunate enough to stray into the _Cornh