For some reason this drawing was not completed; but instead, a group of various election scenes was drawn by him and appeared in the Pictorial World.
The Polling Booth.
There were numerous sketches combined on one page, three of which are reproduced here. The illustrations on pages [70], [72], [80], [81], [82], and [84] were drawn (generally under great pressure of time) with an etching needle on Dawson's plates. This was the beginning of what are now familiarly known as "process" drawings in newspapers, but the system of photographic engraving, now largely used, was not then perfected. In 1874 it would have been impossible to reproduce rapidly in a newspaper, either the delicate lines of a pen and ink sketch, or such a pencil drawing as that given above.
Home Rule—March 1874.
Facsimile of pencil sketch for the Pictorial World.
Caldecott rendered valuable assistance at this time, and the early numbers of the paper are worth having if only for the reproduction of his work. It is not generally known how many of the large illustrations in the Pictorial World were by his hand, or how much he was identified with the publication in the first days of its career.