W. T. Stead to Dr. Albert Shaw (June 3, 1891)
Quoted in Frederick Whyte, The Life of W.T. Stead, (1925) vol I, p. 321
My position is simply this. – Owing to our failure to sell more than 120,000 Christmas numbers, of which 200,000 were printed, I am at present about as hard up for money as any human being can be… The Mattei business will bring in money; i.e., it will cover its expenses and produce profits available for public purposes when it is firmly rooted, but, like everything else, it requires rooting, and the immediate effect on my exchequer is to leave me £1,000 out of pocket. which again hits me hard.