devil, laboriously setting up type on a primitive "Caxton" hand press. Once his apprenticeship finished, and unhappy with a wage of 16 shillings a week, he moved on. To increase his prospects while working on the Nottingham Guardian as a compositor and assistant reporter, he taught himself shorthand. Moving on to Wales, he practised his shorthand in the local church, writing down the sermons and causing the vicar considerable distress. Early on a prominent local councillor complimented Morton on the report of his speech adding, 'It was a damned sight better than what I said.' In shaking hands Morton found himself left holding a sovereign. Morton went on to join the reporting staff of various regional papers gradually working up his salary and after twelve months in Congleton he settled in Southport where he attained four pounds a week. Southport In 1862, after two years on the recently launched Southport Independent and Ormskirk Chronicle, Morton now aged 24, married local girl Annie Todd. Southport had no theatre so, as a hobby, he organised concerts and entertainments including a series of literary lectures. After 8 years in journalism he took on more profitable work (it included first class rail travel) in nearby Liverpool using his shorthand as a solicitor's clerk, first at the County Court, and later with a firm of shipping solicitors. Later still, he opened a shop to sell books and music as well as providing entertainments. This pattern of speculative ventures he later described as "drifting into theatrical work". "I left the profession for which I was educated at the age of 28 and took that of an amusement caterer." Lectures, entertainments and tours Morton's first lecture series was held in the Southport Town Hall early in 1865. He brought in speakers from around the country, arranging for local dignitaries to act as chairmen. Another sideline was teaching shorthand. By 1867 he had become manager of Southport Town Hall Entertainments. By 1870 he advertised as 'Morton’s Concert And Entertainment Institution, established 1865'. Amongst the talent he engaged were George Grossmith pére, the lecturer, George Dawson the preacher, Clara Balfour the temperance campaigner who also lectured on influential women, and John Bellew, celebrated father of Kyrle Bellew. Bellew doubted Morton's ability to pay his fee of sixty guineas for six nights and insisted on being paid each night in gold. However, Morton objected on principle to paying nightly for