GOOD USE OF LEISURE TIME.
“All the leisure I had to myself, evenings and holidays, I spent in making comic sketches, and I took them to the comic papers,—to the ‘Phunny Phellow,’ and ‘Wild Oats.’ I just submitted rough sketches. Soon the editors permitted me to draw the sketches also, which was great encouragement. I met Frank Beard, and called on him, by request, and he proposed that I come into his office. So I left the store, after having been there eight or nine months, and ceased drawing show-cards for the windows. I drew for ‘Wild Oats,’ ‘Harper’s Weekly,’ ‘Frank Leslie’s,’ and the ‘Century,’ which at that time was Scribner’s publication; and later for ‘St. Nicholas.’”
It was then that Mr. Opper had an offer from “Leslie’s” to work on the staff at a salary, which he accepted.
“I was only a little over twenty years of age,” he continued. “I was a humorous draughtsman, and a special artist, also; going where I was directed to make sketches of incidents, people and scenes.”
Six years before, Mr. Opper had left the village school with a burning determination to become an artist. It can be seen how well he sailed his bark,—tacking and drifting, and finally beating home with the wind full on the sails. This shows what determination will do.