STOCK-EXCHANGE WALKS 81 



commemoration medals for all arriving at Brighton 

 in thirteen hours. 



Long before Mav Dav the Press had worked the 

 thing up to the semblance of a matter of Imperial 

 importance, and London talked of little else. April 

 13th had been at first spoken of for the event, but 

 many of the competitors wanted to get into training, 

 and in the end May Day, being an annual Stock 

 Exchange holiday, was selected. 



There were ninety-nine starters from the Clock 

 Tower at 6.30 on that chill May morning : not middle- 

 aged stockbrokers, but chiefly young stockbrokers' 

 clerks. All the papers had published particulars of 

 the race, together with final weather prognostications ; 

 hawkers sold official programmes ; an immense crowd 

 assembled ; a host of amateur photographers descended 

 upon the scene, and the police kept Westminster Bridge 

 clear. Although by no means to be compared with 

 Motor-ear Day, the occasion was well honoured. 



Advertisers had. as usual, seized the opportunity, 

 and almost overwhelmed the start ; and among the 

 motor-cars and the cyclists who followed the com- 

 petitors down the road the merits of Somebody's 

 Whisky, and the pills, boots, bicycles, beef-tea, and 

 flannels of some other bodies impudently obtruded. 



" What went ye out for to see ? ' The public 

 undoubtedly expected to see a number of pursy, 

 plethoric City men. attired in frock-coats and silk- 

 hats, walking to Brighton. What they did see was a 

 crowd of apparently professional pedestrians, lightly 

 clad in the flannels and " shorts " of athletics, trailing 

 down the road, with here and there an " unattached ' 

 walker, such as Mr. Pringle, who, fulfilling the 

 conditions of a wager, walked down in immaculate 

 silk hat. black coat, and spats — " immaculate," that 

 is to say, at the start : as a chronicler adds. " things 

 were rather different later." They were : for thirteen 

 hours' (more or less) rain and mud can work vast 

 changes. The day was. in fact, as unpleasant as well 

 could be imagined, and it is said much for the sporting 



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