This unfortunate mania for bricks and mortar, combined with other circumstances, ended disastrously, and Mayne Reid had to give up his country home, returning to London towards the end of 1866, to begin the world over again. His spirit was still undaunted, and in spite of failing health he succeeded, after many struggles and disappointments, in re-establishing himself.
On Saturday, April 27th, 1867, there appeared in the streets of London the first number of a new penny evening journal, called The Little Times. It was an almost exact counterpart of The Times in miniature. In the first column was:
“Births.—On the 27th inst., at 275 and a half, Strand, London, The Times, of a Little Times.
“Marriages.—On the 6th inst., at Brussels, Philip Coburg to Mary Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. No cards.
“Deaths.—On the 12th inst., at Saint Stephen’s, Westminster, Mr Gladstone’s amendment to the Reform Bill, deeply lamented by Lord Derby.”
This paper was Captain Reid’s first enterprise after his bankruptcy. The Publisher’s advertisement was “The Little Times will be published daily as soon as possible after the receipt of the morning mails and telegrams.
“Its latest edition will contain all the news received up to the dispatch of the evening mails for the country.
“Subscribers in the provinces will thus receive the latest London and Foreign Intelligence before it can reach them by the morning papers.
“About the political leaning of The Little Times nothing need here be said. Its spirit and proclivities will soon be discovered.
“It is scarcely necessary to point out to men of business the advantage of using The Little Times as an advertising medium.