ber. We decided that the first issue was
to be given free to the newsvendors and sellers by way of advertisement,
and notices were put up inviting all such who were willing to sell the
_Turf Tissue_ to assemble outside the offices of the paper on the
Thursday morning by 10 A.M. That morning came and so did the crowds of
would-be sellers to obtain their free issue for which they were to charge
2d. each. In such numbers were they that the traffic was interfered with,
and the police took the matter in hand. I found out that a mistake had
undoubtedly been made in fixing the main thoroughfare as a place of
distribution, and that the mistake was entirely due to my inexperience as
an editor and newspaper proprietor. For such I was. In a short time the
first ten thousand copies of the first number of the newly-fledged
sporting paper were being sold throughout Melbourne town. Looking out of
the window of my office I could hear the loud cries of "Buy a _Turf
Tissue_," "All the tips," "Latest gallops," "Only twopence." All was
going well, and the firm adjourned to Scott's Hotel. A couple of bottles
of "bubbly" christened the very first sheet out of the printing press,
which I have still.

To avoid the scenes in the street of that morning, I arranged for light
carts to proceed next morning to convenient localities, where, under
proper supervision, the regular distribution to sellers would take place,
and these localities were duly and largely advertised that afternoon.

My two partners left me to ferret out what information they could,
particularly to spot, if possible, the winner for the coming Saturday's
races. If we could only strike, say, three or four winners for Saturday
our fortune was made. I looked forward to printing an issue of fifty
thousand copies on the Tuesday morning, the Cup Day, giving the last and
final and correct tip for that great race. I treated myself to an
excellent dinner at my club, and could hardly realize that with all the
disadvantages of inexperience and want of knowledge in business matters
my success had been so quickly and soundly assured. The first of the
rather rude awakenings, which came to me next morning, was a message sent
on to the office, where I was sitting after having supervised the
departure of the delivery carts to their several distributing localities,
arranged for on the previous day, to the effect that no news-sellers were
available at the arranged places, and asking for instruction