les thought
upon which makes my skin twitch hotly. It is remarkable that matter so
astoundingly crude should have seen the light of print. But, when one
comes to think of it, the large, careless newspaper-reading public,
the majority, remains permanently youthful so far as judgment of the
written word is concerned; and so it may be that raw youngsters, such
as I was then, can approach the majority more nearly than the tried
and trained specialist, who, just in so far as he has specialised as a
journalist, has removed himself from the familiar purview of the
general, and acquired an outlook which, to this extent, is exotic.

At all events, I know I achieved some success with articles in the
_Chronicle_ of a sort which no experienced journalist could write,
save with his tongue in his cheek; and tongue-in-the-cheek writing
never really impressed anybody. What seems even more strange to me, in
the light of later life and experience, is the fact that upon several
occasions I proved of some value to the business side of the
_Chronicle_. My efforts actually brought the concern money, and
increased circulation. I find this most surprising, but I know it
happened. There were due solely to my initiative 'interviews' with
sundry leading lights in commerce, and in the professional sporting
world, which were highly profitable to the paper; and this at a time
when the 'interview' was a thing practically unknown in Australian
journalism.

Stimulated perhaps by the remarks of the good Mr. Smith, my room-mate,
I planned ventures of this kind in bed, descending fully armed with
them upon Mr. Foster by day, in most cases to fire him, more or less,
by my own enthusiasm. Upon the whole I earned my pay pretty well while
working for the _Chronicle_, even having regard to the several small
increases made therein. If I lacked ability and experience, I gave
more than most of my colleagues, perhaps, in concentration and
initiative.

The two things most salient, I think, which befell in this phase of my
life were my determination to go to England, and my only adolescent
love affair; this, as distinguished from the sentimental episodes of
infancy and childhood, which with me had been a rather prolific crop.

The determination to make my way to England, the land of my fathers,
did not take definite shape until comedy, with a broad smile, rang
down the curtain upon my love affair. But I fancy it had been a long
while in the making. I am not sur