FRANK OTTER ENTERTAINS 



Still, the result was there when he had finished it. He 

 must have slogged in better in Paris than he did in 

 London, for there were greater distractions when he 

 would come in a taxi to Essex Street after a good 

 lunch, ostensibly to do his work. But he met the 

 boys there, and he was such a hospitable friend that 

 they had to be entertained. With his broad-braided 

 lounge coat, silk hat, shepherd's-plaid trousers and 

 crook stick he would ask to be excused for a minute 

 or two. I would see him saunter across the road and 

 think he had gone to buy cigarettes or send a telegram. 

 He would return in very quick time, but neverthe- 

 less leisurely, with a newspaper parcel under each 

 arm — two quarts of wine. Then there was the finding 

 of glasses and the summoning of some of the members 

 of the staff from the back room. Nicko Wood — N. J. 

 Wood — who won the Great Metropolitan with Whin- 

 bloom ; Walter Kerr—" Doddles "—Tolly Wingfield 

 and others used to come to the office. Lord Torring- 

 ton also used to drop in ; he is another to whom a 

 regret must be expressed that the Sport Set did not 

 turn out a success. I had taken on Alan Stern, who 

 is quite making his way in these days as a caricaturist. 

 Then there was John Lane and others. Two quarts 

 did not always go the round, still, there was always 

 whisky in the cupboard. 



Mr Norris resigned the chairmanship after a very 

 few weeks. His ideas were not mine or mine his ; 

 it makes no matter. Then succeeded the struggle 

 through a winter without a single racing advertisement. 

 Before the end of the season — in fact, about three or 

 four weeks after the paper had been going — I went into 

 the bar at the Empire and met C. Francis Chapman, 

 who was then running the Chatham Hotel in Lower 

 Regent Street. He gave me a half -page advertise- 



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