deed, they called me the 'gentleman in black.' Even to this day the ink I use is a Japanese fluid of the deepest and darkest dye, such as music is copied with. My old skill in modelling stood me in good stead at the Princess's Theatre. I used to model masks for the pantomime and to paint "props." As a linguist I translated French farces, as a caligraphist used to copy out parts; from my early mathematical training I was put on to keep the accounts, stock books, wardrobe—you know the sort of thing—two pairs tights, seventeen dancers' dresses, three pairs of trunks, &c., and all for—fifteen shillings a week! Yet I was never so happy in my life; and at the end of every week I always had 2s. left to lay out during the week ensuing in tea and toast at Mr. Porter's coffee-shop in Long-acre. Porter was a greasy man who was the proud possessor of a still greasier library. There was streaky bacon and shilling butter on every page. But, as I ate my toast and swallowed my tea, I devoured that library. I read Fraser, John Bull in Theodore Hook's time, The Quarterly, Blackwood's Magazine from the commencement, and I know not what. I was unconsciously fitting myself for a leader-writer. I still kept up my painting, though, and well remember doing fifty illustrations of Jenny Lind at 1s. 6d. each for a man in the Burlington Arcade, who made a big profit out of them.
"At last I threw up the engagement at fifteen shillings a week, and years afterwards I remember the old manager at the Princess's saying to a friend, 'Look at him. I brought him out at fifteen bob a week, and now he is riding in his carriage!'"
The Study
From a Photo. by Elliott & Fry.
Soon after this, young Sala got connected with the publishing firm of Ackerman & Co., doing all kinds of humorous productions for them, mainly etching on stone. Adolphe Ackerman—a man of great principle—insisted, however, that the young engraver should learn the whole process of engraving on copper and steel; and, having saved a little money, and being helped by Mr. Ackerman, he apprenticed himself to Henry Alkin for three years. He also illustrated many books—some written by Albert Smith, and others for Mr. Edward Lloyd, who founded Lloyd's News. Mr. Sala characterises these last pictures as being very ghastly. One in particular was for a small novel called "Heads of the Headless," but the picture block was not "strong" enough for Mr. Lloyd. He sent it back with the note: "More blood, and eyes larger!" So skilful did the young artist become in his new calling, that, at the age of twenty-four, he and Mr. Alkin were commissioned to execute an immense pano-
