I BECOME A NEWSPAPER PROPRIETOR
On arrival in Melbourne I took up my quarters in the old White Hart Hotel
at the corner of Bourke Street and Spring Gardens, at that time one of
the most comfortable hotels in Melbourne. Situated as it is just opposite
the present Federal Houses of Parliament, it is well known indeed by many
members both of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The topic of
the day was the opening of the Exhibition, and the official
representatives of the foreign nations who were taking part had by this
time arrived in Melbourne. The representative of the German Empire was in
residence, amongst others, at the White Hart Hotel.
I must tell you of a little incident which should have finished in
someone's death, but did not. The German Commissioner's private secretary
had just been long enough in Melbourne to fall in love with the daughter
of a well-known tradesman. She was certainly a strikingly handsome girl,
and her charms had completely roped in the affections of that gentleman.
This girl, then about eighteen years of age, was engaged, or going to be
engaged, to be married to a local man. The private secretary was so
persistent in his attentions and admiration that he roused the devil in
the heart of her fiance, who challenged the private secretary to a mortal
duel. It was to be a fight to the death, so he stated in the challenge,
which arrived at our hotel at about 10 P.M. on a Tuesday evening, just as
we were sitting down to a game of whist. The private secretary solemnly
handed the written challenge to his chief. The Commissioner read it, then
said: "Write a note in answer stating that our under-secretary will
represent you, and meet at once a representative of your opponent here at
the hotel, with the view of arranging a meeting between you at five
o'clock to-morrow morning." It was summer time. "Would you prefer swords
or pistols?"
"Swords," said the private secretary.
The letter was written and sent, and swords were to be the weapons.
Our game of cards was put off for the moment, but, as I was afterwards
informed, the intervening minutes while the letter was being written had
been taken advantage of by the Commissioner to avoid a scandal. He sent
word to the German Consul requesting his immediate presence at the hotel.
On the Consul's arrival the Commissioner met him privately, explained the
situation, and requested the Consul at once to inform the Commissioner of
Police of the intended duel between the two lovers, and to ask the
Commissioner to prevent it. The Consul quickly left the hotel to carry
out his instructions. The game of whist then proceeded. The private
secretary was not playing too well. No wonder. Even a German under the
circumstances could not have been but somewhat nervous. He needed not to
have been nervous if he had been made aware of the Commissioner's
instructions to the Consul.
At about a quarter to twelve o'clock, as we were finishing our last
rubber, the waiter brought in word that two gentlemen desired to see the
Commissioner. He asked the waiter to show them into the room. On their
coming in they informed the Commissioner that they were extremely sorry
to disturb him at that late hour, that they were police officers, that
information had been received that a breach of the peace was
contemplated, that the private secretary was one of the persons
concerned, and, further, that their orders were to arrest him. As,
however, he was a guest of the Government, it would be more than
sufficient if the Commissioner would guarantee that no breach of the
peace by any one of his staff would take place. I was looking at the
private secretary as this statement was made. I do not think I ever saw
upon anyone's face such a look of relief as came to his.
This ended his affair, as he was made to promise by the Commissioner that
the lady-love was to be forgotten and not to be spoken to again during
their stay in Melbourne.
Having determined to see as much of Australia as possible before I went
home, I bethought myself of the letters of introduction which I had
brought out with me from home. Amongst them was one to General Sir Peter
Scratchley, R.E., who had been, at the request of the Australian
Colonies, sent out by the War Office to advise them as to suitable
positions and type of fortifications to be erected for the protection of
the chief harbours and other vulnerable localities along the Australian
coast. I called on him. He was affable and kind. He gave me considerable
encouragement by telling me that as some of the forts were being
completed it was becoming necessary to increase the Permanent Artillery
Force to man them, and that--it seemed to him--I had just arrived in
time, as my qualifications were satisfactory. He undertook to introduce
me personally to the Premier, Mr. Graham Berry, who advised me to send in
a written application for an appointment and promised General Scratchley
to give it his favourable consideration when the opportunity arose. Just
about this time I received a letter from my old friend, Sir Frederick
Weld, at Singapore, stating that he was reorganizing the Native Police
Force in that colony and wanted to appoint a few British officers to it.
He offered me the position of second in command. This offer was most
alluring to me, but General Scratchley simply ridiculed it. He told me he
knew Singapore only too well, and that if I went I would probably die in
a few years--if I lived as long, and at any rate that I would become an
old man before my time. Far better, he said, stay in a glorious country
like Australia than go and work in a country only fit for niggers, and
poor at that. Taking his advice I declined Sir Frederick Weld's kind
offer. I wrote to him, thanking him, and pointed out that I was somewhat
afraid to go and live in such a hot and moist climate after my sad
experiences during my voyage out in the tropical regions, specially as
since my landing in New Zealand I had not felt a twinge of rheumatism.
So I made up my mind to wait in Melbourne until I obtained my military
appointment. I could not, however, afford to live in idleness, so I
looked round for some suitable occupation which would bring in grist to
the mill. I had always been, as you know, very fond of sport, and horse
racing is the leading sport in Australia. I had been attending the
meetings in and near Melbourne regularly and had become acquainted with a
good many sporting men and the principal bookmakers and trainers. It
struck me that it was a pity that a large city, the capital of a most
thriving colony, where all kind of sport was rife, possessed no daily
sporting paper. The one evening paper in Melbourne, _The Herald_, usually
devoted some space to sport, but it was not published till too late in
the day to be of any value to race-goers and punters. I determined to
start a "sporting news-sheet," to be published for the ten days covering
the forthcoming Melbourne Cup Meeting. This news-sheet would be on sale
at 10 A.M. in the morning, and give the latest information even up to the
last morning's gallops--if any--the scratchings, and latest betting
prices. I at once set to work and got two reliable sporting men
possessing good all-round racing information to join me in the venture.
Then I took a set of offices, which were really much too extravagant and
in too good a position. The offices were in the best part of Collins
Street. But I was a very sanguine young man in those days. It was my
first venture in business bar the roller-skating. As a matter of fact,
not one of us three had any knowledge or experience in business. We
arranged that it should be my work to collect advertisements, attend to
the editing and printing, do the financing, and see to the sale of the
_Turf Tissue_, the name selected for the publication. My two partners'
business was to visit the training tracks, watch the horses at work, get
all the information they could out of trainers, jockeys and stable-boys,
and advise the public what horses to back.
Looking at it without prejudice, it seemed quite a good proposition on
paper. So on we went. The _Turf Tissue_ was to be sold to the public at
twopence a copy, a half-penny of which was to go to the seller. It was a
good commission, but by giving it we hoped to attract a very large number
of the newsboys who sold the evening paper, in view of the fact that by
publishing the _Tissue_ at 10 A.M. the sale would be all finished some
time before the evening papers came out.
Difficulties began early. I found that it was by no means so easy to
collect advertisements, knowing, of course, nothing about it, and I
tackled the job badly. Those who took up advertising space stipulated for
an actual distribution of ten thousand copies of the _Tissue_ each day,
which had to be guaranteed and be carried out before they paid for the
advertisements. I could see no other way out of the difficulty than to
consent to their terms. Next came how to print the _Tissue_. We had no
printing plant of our own, so we had to find what I think they called "a
job printer" to pull us through. This was by no means easy, as I was
unable to find one who would promise that the paper would actually be
printed each day and be ready for issue at the stipulated time. Besides,
the price to be charged seemed to me to be nearly ruinous. Yet if our
venture was worth trying it was worth paying for at first. The _Turf
Tissue_ was to become a genuine daily newspaper. There would be more than
ample profits by and by.
The time was near when the first issue was to take place, namely, the
Thursday of the week before the day on which the Melbourne Cup was to be
run, the first Tuesday in November. We decided that the first issue was
to be given free to the newsvendors and sellers by way of advertisement,
and notices were put up inviting all such who were willing to sell the
_Turf Tissue_ to assemble outside the offices of the paper on the
Thursday morning by 10 A.M. That morning came and so did the crowds of
would-be sellers to obtain their free issue for which they were to charge
2d. each. In such numbers were they that the traffic was interfered with,
and the police took the matter in hand. I found out that a mistake had
undoubtedly been made in fixing the main thoroughfare as a place of
distribution, and that the mistake was entirely due to my inexperience as
an editor and newspaper proprietor. For such I was. In a short time the
first ten thousand copies of the first number of the newly-fledged
sporting paper were being sold throughout Melbourne town. Looking out of
the window of my office I could hear the loud cries of "Buy a _Turf
Tissue_," "All the tips," "Latest gallops," "Only twopence." All was
going well, and the firm adjourned to Scott's Hotel. A couple of bottles
of "bubbly" christened the very first sheet out of the printing press,
which I have still.
To avoid the scenes in the street of that morning, I arranged for light
carts to proceed next morning to convenient localities, where, under
proper supervision, the regular distribution to sellers would take place,
and these localities were duly and largely advertised that afternoon.
My two partners left me to ferret out what information they could,
particularly to spot, if possible, the winner for the coming Saturday's
races. If we could only strike, say, three or four winners for Saturday
our fortune was made. I looked forward to printing an issue of fifty
thousand copies on the Tuesday morning, the Cup Day, giving the last and
final and correct tip for that great race. I treated myself to an
excellent dinner at my club, and could hardly realize that with all the
disadvantages of inexperience and want of knowledge in business matters
my success had been so quickly and soundly assured. The first of the
rather rude awakenings, which came to me next morning, was a message sent
on to the office, where I was sitting after having supervised the
departure of the delivery carts to their several distributing localities,
arranged for on the previous day, to the effect that no news-sellers were
available at the arranged places, and asking for instructions. I sent for
a cab and started for the places where the delivery carts were waiting.
What a change from the previous day! Either something had gone radically
wrong with the advertising of the change in the place and mode of
distribution, or else the news-sellers had been tampered with in some way
or another. Not one was to be found. Then I remembered the agreement with
the advertisers. Ten thousand copies had to be distributed throughout the
city and suburbs. There was only one remedy. The delivery carts must
deliver them, as widely as was possible, but, of course, free of charge.
You will doubtless have noticed that this was the second issue of the
paper which had been made without as yet one penny having been returned
to the promoters.
On returning to the office I found a well-known Jew of that day, who, I
had been told, was the boss of the news-sellers and who practically had
them all in the palm of his hand. He informed me straight out that he had
passed the word round that any vendor, man, woman or child, who sold the
_Turf Tissue_ would be struck off the list of their evening paper
sellers, whom he absolutely controlled. The explanation for the morning's
failure was clear. But what was more clear was the unrelenting spirit in
which my visitor absolutely refused to come to any terms which might lead
to an amicable settlement. He delivered his ultimatum like a Napoleon. He
would have no truck with new-fangled ideas which might interfere with the
sale of the old-established newspaper. He informed me he had not the
slightest ill-feeling personally in the matter; in fact, he went so far
as to say that if I had only conferred with him before launching my
scheme he would have gladly advised me of the futility of it. Bowing
himself out, he departed. I had not the least inclination to step over to
Scott's and have a glass of bubbly. I simply had to count up what our
losses then amounted to. They were as follows, roughly:
(1) The cost of printing of the two issues by the job printer, in
addition to the cost of the paper.
(2) The cost of a fair distribution of ten thousand copies daily, in
order to keep faith with the advertisers.
(3) Our rent of the offices for three months, plus the cost of the office
accessories, lighting, etc.
These were all chargeable to the debit side. On the credit side, nil. No
matter how clever my sporting confreres might be in spotting winners, we
could add not one penny to the credit side. I summoned my two partners to
a conference that afternoon. Somewhat to my surprise they seemed
cheerful. "Things are not so bad as they look," they said. "We have a
real 'dead bird' for the Melbourne Cup. We are going to borrow every
penny we can, pledge any credit we have with the bookmakers, and on
Tuesday evening, after the race, we shall have enough to pay our
liabilities on the _Tissue_ and plenty more besides. So cheer up; just
raise as much money as you can, and we shall put it all on on Monday
evening. On the Tuesday, the morning of the race, we will print twenty
thousand copies of the _Tissue_ with the name of the winner. We will
scatter the _Tissue_ all over the city and the race-course. The public
will back him for all they are worth, for he is a good horse. He may
shorten in price. If so we can lay off and stand on velvet."
This cheered me up a good deal. Their confidence in their plan was
catching. So we went to Scott's, after all, had a bottle, and I went
home, calculating what my third share of our losses in the _Tissue_ would
amount to, and how much ready cash I could lay my hands on to back our
tip so as to balance the account. I was not the least ambitious to make a
fortune. All I wanted was to get clean clear of my journalistic
enterprise and cease to be the proprietor, editor and publisher of a
newspaper.
I put aside my worries for the week-end. As a matter of fact, three of
our tips out of six races came off on the Saturday, which gave the public
considerable confidence in our selection for the winner of the Cup on the
Tuesday. Then, casting sorrows to the winds, I arranged for a quiet
week-end down at Sorrento. The weather was hot; Sorrento beach was
delightful. The lapping waves on the beach were fresh and briny; Nature
smiled, and I put worries away.
Then came Monday. It was the evening we were to put our money on our
horse, our pick, nay, our "dead bird" for the Cup. We three met at the
office. Our office boy, rather a wag in his way, had decorated my office
table with flowers. My two partners, who seemed to me to have spent the
week-end without any sleep, visiting training stables, waiting for the
first streaks of dawn to watch the early Sunday and Monday morning
gallops, and doing all that is expected of racing touts, were more than
convinced of the certainty of their choice. There was nothing in it but
"Mata." "Mata" could not be beaten. The race was all over. "Mata,"
however, was at a short price, and I could see it would require a good
deal of money to enable me to get round my share of our losses. Still,
what was the use of all our exertions and hard work and financial risks
if the two partners specially selected for their intimate knowledge of
the true form of the horses were not to be believed? There was nothing
for it but to sink or swim together. We duly published the _Tissue_ on
the Tuesday morning, the Cup morning. By a quarter past ten you could
pick up a copy of the _Tissue_ anywhere in the city. We sent cabs full of
them to Flemington and scattered them all over the road and the course.
Every one was saying "Mata" would win all right.
The Melbourne Cup was run that afternoon, and Mata did _not_ win. As a
matter of fact, he was one of the two last horses to finish. Grand
Flaneur won--our tip for a place. All was up with the _Turf Tissue_.
Nothing was left but for myself and my two partners to try to look happy
and pay our responsibilities. I attended the office on the Wednesday, but
my partners did not turn up, as I expected. I found out afterwards that
they had lost their all, and that, as I had undertaken the financial
responsibilities of the venture, it was left to me to have the pleasure
of winding up our company's affairs. I had in this respect to stand a
great deal of good-natured chaff from my friends and General Scratchley,
who thought it was quite a good joke.
I am reminded that years afterwards the following amusing incident
occurred in Melbourne. The Melbourne Cup of 1896 was to take place. Some
two months before the race the Duke of the Abruzzi, cousin of the King of
Italy, then a young man and a sailor, arrived in Adelaide on an Italian
man-of-war. He was making a tour round the world. I saw a good deal of
him during his stay in Adelaide. I was then Commandant of South
Australia. The duke was much interested in the Cup, and he was most
anxious to get a good tip. A mare called Auraria, belonging to Mr. David
James, of Adelaide, was in the race. She was a good mare, and a good deal
fancied for the race by the talent in Adelaide. She had, at any rate, an
outside show. So I suggested to the duke and his staff to put some money
on, as the odds against her at the time were about thirty to one, and if
she improved before the day of the race that price was sure to shorten
and they could lay off. He made me write the name "Auraria" in his
notebook, so that he wouldn't forget. He continued his tour, and I had
forgotten the incident. Later on I was in Melbourne, staying with Lord
Hopetoun for the Cup carnival. I had backed Auraria myself, hoping to lay
off. However, when the day came, nobody wanted to back her. As a matter
of fact, you could get forty to one about her as the horses went to the
post. The race started. Coming up the straight it was an open race. When
they got to the distance the crowd yelled the names of several horses as
the winners. At the half distance there came a regular roar. "Auraria,
Auraria wins!" A few seconds more and Auraria was first past the post.
After the race we went to afternoon tea with their Excellencies. The room
was full, but there were only one or two of us winners, when one of the
A.D.C.s told His Excellency that the Duke of the Abruzzi was just outside
and he had asked him to come in. In he came, with two of his staff, full
of smiles, rushed towards His Excellency and said, "Look! I backed
Auraria. We"--he pointed to his A.D.C.--"backed Auraria. We each win
L160. Look! All here in our pockets," which were bulging with gold and
notes. And, turning round to the admiring crowd, he suddenly saw me. In a
moment he was embracing me with both arms round my neck, saying,
"Auraria, my friend! The beautiful Adelaide Auraria." He then explained
that it had been mere chance that he had been enabled to leave Sydney the
night before, and had arrived at Flemington race-course just in time for
the race, and they had backed Auraria with the cash bookmakers, obtaining
the useful odds of forty to one. He then pulled out his pocket-book and
said, "You see the name 'Auraria'? You wrote it for me in Adelaide. I
came to put my money on. It is splendid." And so it was.
[Illustration: The Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of
Australia by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, 9th May, 1901]