from drawing from the nude, which eugene came to do very successfully that winter, his interest switched to his work in the illustration class where costume figures were used. here, for the first time, he tried his hand at wash drawings, the current medium for magazine work, and was praised after a time for his execution. not always, however; for the instructors, feeling that harsh criticism would make for steadier effort, pooh-poohed some of his best work. but he had faith in what he was destined to do, and after sinking to depths of despair he would rise to great heights of self-confidence.
his labor for the peoples' furniture company was becoming a rather dreary grind when vincent beers, the instructor in the illustration class, looking over his shoulder one wednesday afternoon said:—"you ought to be able to make a little money by your work pretty soon, witla."
"do you think so?" questioned eugene.
"it's pretty good. there ought to be a place on one of the newspapers here for a man like you—an afternoon newspaper possibly. did you ever try to get on?"
"i did when i first came to the city, but they didn't want anyone. i'm rather glad they didn't now. i guess they wouldn't have kept me very long."
"you draw in pen and ink pretty well, don't you?"
"i thought i liked that best of all at first."
"well, then, they ought to be able to use you. i wouldn't stay very long at it though. you ought to go to new york to get in the magazine illustration field—there's nothing out here. but a little newspaper work now wouldn't hurt you."
eugene decided to try the afternoon papers, for he knew that if he got work on one of these he could still continue his night classes. he could give the long evening session to the illustration class and take an occasional night off to work on the life studies. that would make an admirable arrangement. for several days he took an hour after his work to make inquiry, taking with him some examples of his pen and inks. several of the men he saw liked what he had to show, but he found no immediate opening. there was only one paper, one of the poorest, that offered him any encouragement. the editor-in-chief said he might be in need of a man shortly. if eugene would come in again in three or four weeks he could tell him. they did not pay very much—twenty-five dollars to beginners.
