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expressed the hope that as the work became better known the number of subscribers would increase, and in May 1899 he announced that his circulation was increasing and was a great success. He claimed a noticeable increase in the number of advertisers especially from America and planned to increase advertising space. Three months later however, in July 1899, he noted that certain advertisers had deserted him, and specifically referred to 'banks, steamer and insurance agencies.'
Volume III was completed in October 1899, since which time, Mesny wrote in April 1905, he had been busily engaged in keeping soul and body together by means of commissions earned as a life and fire insurance agent. During the five years 1900 - 1905 he had canvassed a great many Chinese and foreigners with a view to insuring 'their precious lives or their valuable property,' and had succeeded in persuading a few, of the many people he had canvassed, that insurance was a wise investment; he continued, ‘A respectable insurance agent is in reality one of the greatest latter day benefactors of mankind. Instead of being considered a pestilent fellow and a nuisance to be shunned at all times, he ought to be eagerly patronised and praised.' Also in 1899 he had problems over money having stood surety for a Chinese arrested for publishing a so-called illegal book.
In 1904 Mesny, whilst complaining about 'Chinese shareholders being defrauded by their incapable and avaricious squeezing directors,' mentioned that 'it happened [undated] that I had Taels 400,000 in hand to invest on reasonable terms as to risk and interest.' The rest of the statement was not material. The question these remarks raise is when did he have a sum as large as four hundred thousand taels available?, and whether the large sum was his or he was handling it on behalf of someone else? We shall never know.
In February 1905 Mesny offered subscribers the opportunity to invest in the stock of Mesny's Miscellany. He was also advertising insurance suggesting that people call or write to him, with no charge for consultation.
Towards the end of issue 20 (of 26), in May 1905 a short but heavily printed notice read, 'Subscribers and Advertisers are hereby respectfully informed that the Editor [Mesny] of Miscellany is wading up to his knees in financial difficulties, a fact which may delay the completion of Volume