UNSUCCESSFUL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2026, 22 December 1892, Page 5

UNSUCCESSFUL.

Specially Written for the Witness Christmas Number of 1893.

By LVCILLA.

L'ght of atep, glad of heart, be walks rapidly on, tenderly clasping a roll of manu- ' script in one hand . " What though Fortune has proved fickle 1 Through the failure of a bank I'm loft absolutely penniless, and in an unknown land, too. But nothing can rob me of genius. Ha ! ha 1 I feel it within me. By the aid of my trusty pen I thaU rapidly attain what is better than money — fama I Carl j on is bound to accept this essay, and it will be the stepping stone to fortune." Full of these thoughts he ran full tilt againtt a wee toddler in the environs o! a gieat city— a toddler bo new to walking that the went " spinning," setting up at the same time a dismal howl. Gently he picked up thß child, feeling in hiß pocktt for tbat proverbial toother to the infant distressed— a penny. Alas I his only coin happened to be a sixpence. It was his last, and he had intended indulging in a fish breakfast at a certain shop that advertised an abundant meal for the moderate sum of six pennies. Seriously, though, ho couldn't waste his last sixpence on such a small specimen of humanity. Ilucger and imagination running rio*, he could positively smell the fish when - the babe began to cry and murmur " Penny I " tolerably loudly. Tbat settled ths point. ." Here you are, little one ; a silver penny for you." * Oar young author walked into the publisher's with a firm, buoyant step, laid his manuscript on the counter, and proffered to call again in an hour. Culjon (if it were he) looked up with a harassed air.

"About this manuscript do you. mean 7" he inquired sharply. " Oh, the editor is verj busy just now. Call again in a week or ten days."

Our yonng scribe groans (inwardly;. How little the man at the desk yonder understands " the state of Denmark." He passes the fish eiiop. aud feels desperately in the torn lining of his coat for a straying sixpence that might have escaped his notice. But fate had not been so provident. Up to the fifth storey again, and breakfast:esH. He must make some arrangamsnts with his landlady to board him. It would never do to depend on ready money for the work of hia brains. To that august personrge he batook himself, informing bar that it would probably be a week before be recsived a cbeque from Messrs Carlyon and Sons, and that he. would requite board as well as lcdglnpr. Tae name of the firm, in conjunction with that of " cheque," changed Mrs Maguire'B manner from that of bare civility to that of fawning servility. " Oertbainly, and what woald the marather be loiking for his breakferaht 1 " «l prefer fisjj to. m§ns Wft Nile" £> it Si

brain-feeding," was bis mental ejaculation), -" and will yon be good enough to serve it up at once 1 I didn't breakfast at — at the club this morning, and I was too busy writitg last night to remember my dinner; I am tolerably famished therefore, Mrs Maguire." The postman paid more visits to the second-rate lodging house that next week than he had done the three months previously. Nine manuscripts were returned marked " Unsuitable," &c.

It was very crushing certainly, considering that his bread depended on it. Before reverses came critics amongst bis friends who read his literary efforts from tim* to time had pronounced them " racy " and " full of promise," yet theße articles were now returned to him without any panegyrias. A few encomiums would have mitigated the eeverity of the blow, b^, alas I he was now in a Btrange land, and unknown. The very ordinary name of Hodgson, too, was against him. Who ever heard of a Hodgson turning out a «»fcniu3 l Bah I Perhaps if he allowed his hair to grow long, und affected the AngloIndian or the American style, professing to know everything, coining unpronounceable words, staring hard through the modern eyeglass, and explaining how things could be better governed if he had the reins of government— why, then people might be led to think him some gp-eai star, seeing how they value a man and hia writings at his own valuation. He uauie to the conslusion that self-aesurance is oue of the key-notes to success, and in this quality he was lacking. Hope and a certain amouut of quiet vanity lay dormant, bat his disposition was too retiring to make a rapid road to fame. Young Hodgson's hope now lay in Carlyon. Somehow he felt csrtuin of success in that quarter. In fact, if it proved to be otherwise ho would simply havo to look for •' pastures new," as Mrs Maguire's clamours were getting more forcibly than polite. He entered tha publisher's once more, hardly daring to look up, when in answer to his query the man put his hand into a pigeonhole close by. Is he fetching thence a letter or the MSS.I He hold.? his breath. Hia own manuscript again. " Unsuitable " stares him in the face. " Hope deferred raaketh the heart 6ick "—" — aye, and the coat threadbare, to say nothing of the shoe leather.

Our literary aspirant'has left Mrs Maguire'u many a year back. Bj miatake be leffc a tiny roll of his best efforts behind him. Looked on aa rubbish by that daughter of Krin, the "efforts"' found their way into tbe kitchen, narrowly escaping a fiery doom. They were rescued by a kitchen lodger who had travelled the world as a valat, and had not travelled in vain so far as acquiring acumen is concerned. Being, however, devoid of honesty, be didn't hesitate to send these papers to a leading journal, purporting them to' have hecn "'recentry discovered in the desk of a popular author, lately. deceased." In his celebrated name they were published. The unscrupulous valet received the gains. Poor Hodgson happened to see the articles in question, but ha had nothing wheraby to prove his authorship. Ha had left the place in debt, and it was impolitic to conae forward now. A brilliant review appeared on these very essays, which from their style and diction were pronounced to be moat unmistakably those of the famous . Hodgson smites. "What's in a name?" he questions fiercely. " Why, everything. William Shakegpeare, you were incorrect in this assertion."