CHAPTER XXIII 



ON THE NEW YORK HERALD 



No Fixed Salary — Called to Beaulieu — Racing Correspondent — First 

 Interview with James Gordon Bennett — The Why of my Nom de 

 Plume — The Commodore's Tireless Energy — Genius of Control — 

 Editors in Charge — Keenness for Polo 



Taking a trip to Paris soon after this, I stayed on and 

 wrote to Mr James Gordon Bennett to see if he could 

 find room for me to write the racing article on the 

 New York Herald. I had kept in touch with French 

 racing form and knew a good many of the crowd on the 

 turf there. A week or so afterwards I received a letter 

 to go and see the editor in charge. He told me that I 

 could go ahead and begin at Maisons Laffitte the next 

 day. Nothing was said about salary, and I was told 

 to pay the twenty francs a day admission pending the 

 fixing up of everything. As luck would have it, there 

 was a certain amount of brightness about the early 

 articles, but day followed day without me hearing 

 anything with regard to remuneration. Wilton, the 

 editor, then told me not to worry. In about a week, 

 at the office one night, he asked me what I had been 

 making : he had received a wire from " The Com- 

 modore," as Mr Bennett is called. I told him, and the 

 day after received instructions to go down to Beaulieu. 

 The ticket and sleeper were waiting for me, and my 

 rooms engaged at Beaulieu. A bath, a change, and a 

 good dejeuner, and I drove along the lovely road up 

 to the Villa Namouna, a beautiful house surrounded 

 by trees. My feelings were mixed as I walked up the 



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