2 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
efforts. There was at that time in the neighbouring 
town of Brockport an Englishman named David 
Bruce, whose hobby was taxidermy. By calling he 
was a painter and interior decorator—a very skilful 
craftsman who did special work far and wide through 
the country. As a recreation he mounted birds and 
animals for sportsmen. His office was filled with 
birds in cases and he was surrounded with other 
evidences of his hobby. 
To me it seemed that he led an ideal life, for he had 
a successful business and one that gave him enough 
spare time to indulge his fancies in taxidermy. It 
hadn’t entered my head at the time that a man could 
make a living at anything as fascinating as taxidermy, 
so I felt that the best possible solution of the problem 
was that which Mr. Bruce had devised. I went to 
see if I could get a job with him in his decorating 
business in order that I might also be with him in his 
hobby. He was most kindly and cordial. I remem- 
ber that he took me out and bought me an oyster 
stew and told me, while we were eating, that if I came 
with him he would teach me all his trade secrets in 
painting and decorating, which he had kept even from 
his workmen. It seemed to me that a glorious future 
was settled for me then and there. If I was not in 
the seventh heaven, I was at least in the fifth or sixth 
and going up, and then my prospects became so 
favourable as to become almost terrifying. Mr. 
Bruce, after having made me such alluring offers to 
come with him, said that he thought I ought to go to 
a much better place than his shop—a place where I 
