Page:Cartoons by Bradley.djvu/22

 determining events that arose every ten years or so, and that jolted his conservative, habit-forming nature into a new phase, had come. Alone in Melbourne, and not overstocked with money, he thought of going to work. He thought of writing, and he did do some routine newspaper work. And then he considered pictures. Was he an artist? He did not know. But one day, as he wandered along the street irresolute, his eye caught a sign in a newspaper office window:

He did not go in, but went away and prepared some sketches, which he sent to the editor. To his dismay came a reply that the paper had just died.

"The editor wrote me," runs Mr. Bradley's own account, as he told it some years ago, "that since I was not yet the paper's cartoonist, I could not be blamed for its death. He added he was going to start another publication, in which he hoped to use my pictures."

The new venture was named Australian Tidbits. Luther Bradley became its cartoonist, and gave up all thought of going home. He had found a brand new interest in life; the interest that was always afterward to be supreme.

HAT began as a brief visit to Australia expanded into a residence of eleven years. After his service for Tidbits, afterwards Life, Mr. Bradley, then a robust, bearded man of thirty and more, drew cartoons for Melbourne Punch. On this last publication, a weekly, he remained the longest. He wrote dramatic reviews for it. And once, when the editor, Mr. McKinley, took a trip around the world, Luther Bradley was in editorial charge for a year. Meantime he entered joyously into the life of the city, which he found highly congenial, owing to its intelligent and rather leisurely atmosphere, and its passion, almost equal to his, for outdoor sports.