Page at once began contributing leading articles on literary and political topics to this publication; the work proved so congenial that he purchased--on notes--a controlling interest in the new venture and became its directing spirit.

The _Age_ was in every way a worthy enterprise; in the dignity of its make-up and the high literary standards at which it aimed it imitated the London _Spectator_.

Perhaps Page obtained a thousand dollars' worth of fun out of his investment; if so, that represented his entire profit.

He now learned a lesson which was emphasized in his after career as editor and publisher, and that was that the Southern States provided a poor market for books or periodicals.

The net result of the proceeding was that, at the age of twenty-three, he found himself out of a job and considerably in debt.
He has himself rapidly sketched his varied activities of the next five years: "After trying in vain," he writes, "to get work to do on any newspaper in North Carolina, I advertised for a job in journalism--any sort of a job.