Mr.Raymond of the Times, hearing me play the piano at which from childhood I had received careful instruction, gave me a job as "musical critic" during the absence of Mr.Seymour, the regular critic.
I must have done my work acceptably, since I was not fired.

It included a report of the debut of my boy-and-girl companion, Adelina Patti, when she made her first appearance in opera at the Academy of Music.

But, as the saying is, I did not "catch on." There might be a more promising opening in Washington, and thither I repaired.
The Daily States had been established there by John P.Heiss, who with Thomas Ritchie had years before established the Washington Union.

Roger A.Pryor was its nominal editor.

But he soon took himself home to his beloved Virginia and came to Congress, and the editorial writing on the States was being done by Col.