arrying on board not only the old
passengers of the _Pall Mall Budget_, but those of the _Lika Joko_ as
well, and many new ones. 'Henceforth,' said the captain of the _Lika
Joko_, who had now become the captain of the _New Budget_, 'we will set
our sails every Thursday morning.'"

Little did I think the change was a fable. I had not long to wait to
find I had been utterly deceived. According to Mr. Astor, his reason for
his stopping his expensive paper was not as stated! As soon as I
discovered this I called together my friends, and as they would have to
supply a huge capital to carry on the _Budget_, and as I had been
deceived, it was arranged that they should retire with their unused
capital, and I carried on the _New Budget_ with my own capital of
L6,000. The paper cost me L100 a day--L700 each number. I had the best
artists, the best writers, the best printers--the same as Mr. Astor--but
here comes in my difficulty. As I had amalgamated _Lika Joko_ with the
_New Budget_, I was legally bound to the contract made with the
advertising manager. That contract worked out in nearly every case at 40
per cent. commission for advertisement. That finished me. Was that
editorial or business? I think the latter. Was I to blame? I think not.

As the American millionaire had discovered before me that it was
impossible to give a shillingsworth for sixpence (although I ran it for
a longer period than he did), I ceased its publication. Few papers, it
has been said, were more admired than this artistic and refined _New
Budget_, and I take this opportunity of denying that it was in any way a
failure compared with papers in existence for years still losing money,
and I am sincerely proud of my contribution to the publishing of
periodicals. But had I not been deceived, and dropped _Lika Joko_, that
paper would now have been a splendid property.

I confess that the financial loss, severe to a professional man who has
made it all by his own hand, was not what upset me. I am not a
gambler--I never bet a shilling in my life--but I thought better of my
fellow-men than they deserve. What did trouble me was that I never was
given credit for my pluck. I was, and I am still, grossly misrepresented
by a certain section of journalists. When the _Pall Mall Budget_ was
discontinued, was it written down a failure? No, certainly not. A
pathetic excuse was manufactured. That excuse was as clever as it was
untrue, as I discovered to my cost.

I think