successful business man, the future of popular journalism, and the like.
"How do you manage to keep all your irons hot?" I asked my host; "you
edit three papers, you are a member of Parliament, you build railways
up the cliffs of popular watering-places, you play games, you do
everything. How is it all done, pray, Mr. Newnes? What is the secret
of your life?" "Well," he slowly replied, and with a certain shy
hesitation, for though prompt and energetic enough in actual business,
no more modest man, or one more reluctant to speak of himself and his
doings walks this earth--"well, though I don't want to boast about it,
yet the simple fact is, I work very quickly, and I get through my
business much faster than most men do. I make up my mind, form my plans,
and arrive at conclusions very rapidly. With regard to my editorial
work, for instance, all 'copy' for the papers is sifted for me at the
office, then it is sent up here, where I work three days a week,
selecting that which I think shall go in, and marking it for press. I
dictate the 'Answers to Correspondents' page to my private secretary.
This page always takes up three hours a week. I get through my
editorial, parliamentary and business work, and manage to get a good
deal of leisure besides. Golf, tennis and chess take up my leisure. When
I am in the country I have all my work sent there. The fact is, _I work
hard and I play hard_, and I believe each is equally necessary for good
health and real happiness. Curiously enough, I do not believe that
naturally I am of a very systematic nature, but so much business forces
me to be so."

[Illustration: THE TENNIS COURT.]

"And as to the future of journalism generally, and of such papers as
yours in particular, Mr. Newnes?" I queried. "With the spread of
education and the increase of Board Schools, there is a great change
coming over the masses, is there not?" "I think this," he replied, "that
many of the papers of the day are developing too much the gambling and
lottery spirit, which I regard as a very evil one, and would not for a
moment countenance. I think, as you say, that the Board Schools have
immensely increased the number of buyers of papers of this kind, and it
is a great source of satisfaction to me that I should have inaugurated
a popular paper which should be taken largely by the masses, and which
is absolutely pure. When I came out with _Tit-Bits_ there was not a
single popular paper containing fun or jokes or a