PHIL MAY'S EARLY STRUGGLES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue I, 4 July 1896, Page 25

PHIL MAY'S EARLY STRUGGLES.

Phil May was seventeen years of age when he decided that he had had enough of the provincial life of Leeds and would go to London. His sole possession was a a sovereign, and bang went 15s 6d for his fare. He arrived in the Metropolis with the balance. * But I was there,’ he said, * and I made for an aunt who lived in John Street Road, Clerkenwell. But I don’t think my uncle was glad to see me, for he gave me my snpper and a bed, and next morning took me to the railway station and put me in the train for Leeds. But I didn’t mean to return. I got out at the first stoppingplace and walked back. All my hopes were in London.’

It was a wretched time for him, though —a heart breaking experience. Moneyless, homeless, and friendless, he wandered about the streets of the city. He begged broken biscuits at the public houses, quenching his thirst at the street fountains. And it was winter ! Many weary miles were tramped in search of work, that deadening, sickening experience which demoralises so many. But the real grit was in Phil May’s heart. He struggled on ; he changed his walkingstick with a child on Hungerford Bridge for a piece of bread and bacon ; he slept on

the Embankment, in the parks—indeed, anywhere be could. Good fortune came to him first through a print-seller near Charing Cross, who took a drawing he had made of three well-known actors and published it. The man lost £5 in the venture, but he believed in the artist, and treated him to dinners of beef a la modem

At last Phil May got an introduction to Mr Lionel Brough, who purchased the original drawing of the actors for £2 2s, and passed the artist on to the editor of London Society. For this paper he did a few drawings, but poverty still bung closely to him. He was introduced to the editor of the St. Stephen's Review, but he did not want any work done just then. After a year had passed, broken down by a long illness, he returned to his mother at Leeds.

He had hardly settled down when a telegram arrived from the St. Stephen's Review asking him to go back to London. He went, to find that he was wanted to do the whole of the illustrations and design the cover for their Christmas number, all in a week ! He did it. Day and night he worked till it was finished. Then came another period of weary waiting. His money was again all spent, and he used to leave bis lodgings in a very humble hotel to * go out to his meals ’ —in other words, to walk the streets fasting. His landlord —kindly soul!—discovered the farce, and insisted upon his having supper with him, and although he knew bis guest had no money, let him stay on. After some time the St. Stephen's Review gave him regular employment, and the dark days were over. Then came the grand opportunity of going to Australia as artist for the Sydney Bulletin. He accepted it, and came back with his art as we knew it in 1890.