Arthur Hancock. 207 



have at my funeral as sincere mourners as the clowns, athletes j 

 trick riders and ring men who stood with tearful faces and 

 bowed heads that December afternoon, while the clergymen 

 read the Burial Service over the remains of poor William 

 Woodyear. The scene was very, very sad. 



One morning about this time, three travel-stained and 

 thirsty-looking men called at my office. I offered them 

 chairs, the usual whisky and soda, and asked them to tell 

 me their tale, which was as follows : They had just come 

 from Natal, and on landing that morning from their steamer 

 in search of what my friends of 52 Fleet Street would call 

 the ' oof bird,' they inquired if there was anyone who would 

 help them in their designs, and were accordingly directed on 

 to me. Two were jockeys out of work ; the other was Arthur 

 Hancock, the once famous walker. One of the knights of the 

 pigskin, Joe Hardy, stayed in India, had good ' chances ' and 

 has done fairly well. The other, Martin, went, I believe, to 

 England. I got up two or three contests for Hancock, who, 

 acting on the principle that money earned in a country 

 should be spent in it, paid over the bar of the nearest public 

 house, the 100 or more he might have taken away with him 

 from Calcutta. I was very sorry for Hancock ; but he was 

 quite * impossible.' The decay of those athletes who only 

 think of the present, is almost as sad as that of improvident 

 demi-mondaines. Hancock was a grand walker ; but had 

 as much capacity for making money out of his long-distance 

 powers as a racehorse would have of ' working ' a commission. 

 The only chance such men have of doing any * good,' is to 

 put themselves in the hands of a ' gaffer/ who would treat and 

 train them as if they were dogs or horses, and who on making 

 a coup by their assistance would probably pocket the entire 

 proceeds with the exception, perhaps, of enough to buy a 

 hand-me-down suit of clothes and a couple of bottles of 

 whisky. Hancock had tried America, South Africa, and, I 

 believe, Australia and New Zealand, without materially bene- 

 fiting himself. Goodness only knows what made him pitch 



