h he (Mr. Furniss)
pursued. He went to Dickens, and wanted to illustrate his books, but
Dickens would not have the sketches; afterwards Mr. Sala went into
literature, and it was a very good thing for him and for literature that
Dickens gave him the refusal that he did. (Hear, hear.)

"Mr. Sala began not only as an artist, but as a caricaturist, and he had
to send into the Academy Schools three 'short drawings,' as they were
called, of a head, a hand, and a foot. Unfortunately for Mr. Sala, he
had six toes upon the foot he drew, and the Examiner, having counted
these toes, pointed the matter out to Mr. Sala, who did not get into the
Academy Schools, so now he was the Art Critic of the _Daily Telegraph_.
In 1851, Mr. Sala painted the pictures upon the walls of an eating
saloon, and that probably had given him the taste for cooking which he
had evinced ever since."

The reporter had evidently trusted to his memory, and not to shorthand
notes--thus the blunder. I pointed it out, and at once corrected it in a
letter printed in the same paper a day or so afterwards. My object in
all sincerity was to have a joke--du Maurier's joke--at Sala's expense,
but in leading up to it my very complimentary and perfectly accurate
parallel illustration of Thackeray was unfortunately, by the reporter's
carelessness, attributed to Sala!

This correction was entirely lost sight of by the Press, and I was
accused by papers all over the country of having falsely accused him of
offering to illustrate Dickens. Papers printed apologies to Sala, and in
some cases paid Sala's solicitor money to avoid actions-at-law. I then
heard that he was going for me. I found a letter from Burnand to that
effect the evening I returned from a lecturing tour. Strange to say,
that night Sala and I were both guests of a Medical Society's dinner at
the Holborn Restaurant. Both had to make speeches. I spoke before Sala,
and referred to a misquotation from a speech I had made in the country,
and purposely then and there made the _amende honorable_, of which he at
least understood the meaning. He ignored this altogether, and I now
merely mention the incident to show that he was vindictive from the very
first. He would not listen to reason. Sir George Lewis, Mr. Labouchere,
Mr. Burnand, and other mutual friends failed: Sala remained obdurate. It
was freely reported after the verdict was given that the plaintiff
never had any desire