282 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



the paper, I returned to find myself involved in a fierce 

 religious controversy, my deputy having admitted an 

 article entitled " The Loves of the Priests." Clement 

 Scott had sent in his resignation, and there were wigs on 

 the green all round. Nothing could have been more dis- 

 tasteful than to be mixed up in such a broil, but you 

 cannot repudiate your own paper. 



It ended in us going into offices at 21 John Street, 

 Adelphi and very good offices they were and in my 

 securing a sub-editor whose pen-name was " Edgar Lee." 

 He was known to his familiars as William Tasker, and 

 he was an extraordinary little man with a bald head 

 and side whiskers. He could write about anything and 

 everything, and he would work all day and all night. 

 For me, I believe, he would have done anything. Baron 

 Munchausen himself had not a greater capacity for simu- 

 lating truth while telling the most astounding fictions. 

 He was a spiritualist, he was well, what was he not ? 

 he had a heart of gold all the time that much at least I 

 know. There came with him Eaton Edeveain, an elderly 

 barrister, who undertook the business management of 

 the paper. He was a good sort enough, and the father 

 of " Templer Saxe," who attained to some repute as a 

 baritone singer, but the old gentleman was a muddler at 

 best, and yet it was through him I discovered a treasure 

 indeed. He happened to show me one or two line sketches 

 of Lionel Brough, Toole and Irving, and by some strange 

 intuition I was convinced at once that I had never seen 

 work which showed such genius. 



We were nearly approaching the day when the first 

 Christmas Number of the paper had to be published, and 

 the artist who had been commissioned to do the big 

 double-page picture had failed so miserably that the idea 

 of having his effort reproduced seemed out of the question. 

 But what were we to do ? I looked at the two or three 

 sketches mentioned above, and said to Edeveain : " Who 

 did these ? He could get us out of the trouble, if there 

 is time." 



