s, and just when it seemed to be about to turn the
corner and get into a more profitable groove, its capitalist proprietor
gave it up in disappointment and disgust. For one thing, he found it
difficult to get all the influential help he wanted in the news
department, and he was probably getting a little weary of putting money
into a basket that seemed to have no bottom to it. Yet it was believed
by those well experienced in newspaper management that another year
would have seen a favourable turn in the fortunes of the paper. The
costly ground baiting which is necessary in a newspaper establishment
had been done, and the expensive seed which has to be sown was about to
come up when the proprietor resolved to plough the paper up and so add
another to the formidable list of local newspaper failures.

In the grave of the _Birmingham Morning News_ were buried many hopes.
The proprietor hoped to make a fortune. Mr. Dawson hoped to make an
income and secure a still wider influence through its medium. Its rivals
hoped it would not succeed, and by its death and burial their hopes were
realised.

One little incident in connection with local journalism I must record
here as being something almost unique. I refer to the astounding sketch
Mr. H.J. Jennings--for many years editor of the _Birmingham Daily
Mail_--wrote of himself in 1889, and the circumstances that led to its
publication. After many years' connection with the _Daily. Mail_, Mr.
Jennings went over to another local evening paper, the _Daily Times_,
and by way of giving it a fillip he published in its columns a series of
papers on "Our Public Men."

That these sketches were not entirely flattering to the subjects of
them will be readily understood. Mr. Jennings always was a smart, spicy,
and sometimes even brilliant writer, but he could not help being more or
less cynical. He rather liked to stick the toasting fork into his
subjects, and then hold them pretty close to the bars of a decidedly hot
fire. The result was that many of them burned and smarted under the
ordeal. One of the victims went so far as to propose that this
self-appointed censor of public characters should be fought with his own
weapons, and have a taste of his own nasty physic. In a word it was
suggested that someone should draw Mr. H.J. Jennings' portrait on his
own lines after his own manner.

Mr. Jennings promptly took up the gauntlet that was thrown down and
immediately proceeded to write a sketc