LIFE OF THE AUTHOR xi 



illustration. Say I was ' doing ' cricket, or 

 football, or fighting, or rowing, or racing, and 

 I was hors de combat, does anyone suppose that 

 some good fellow of a competing paper or service 

 wouldn't see me or my stuff through, or do the 

 same for anyone else in the line of business ? I 

 give you my word they would, and be pleased to 

 do so. Take self and the Sports7nan. Barring 

 its Dramatic Notes, I think there is no part of 

 its repertoire that I have not done at one time 

 or another to help a lame dog — excuse the simile 

 as only partly appropriate — over the stile, and all 

 the time was only doing what I feel quite certain 

 would be done for me in difficulties. 



" ' Vigilant ? ' How many ' Vigilants ' have I 

 written — goodness only knows, many and many ; 

 just as I have ' Augurs ' for the Sporting Life 

 when the distinguished regular author was * out.' 

 My first connection with ' Vigilant ' was funny. 

 Brother Sportsman and Sportsmen, you will 

 forgive me for going a long while back. Many 

 years ago, a good old friend. Jack Mitchell, used 

 to grind out that article, and I was engaged 

 otherwise than in sport or journalism, but all the 

 same an occasional contributor to the Life and 

 the Man, and, I regret to add, a frequenter of 

 race meetings. At Goodwood and Newmarket, 

 Mitchell, rest his soul, would lure me on by 

 offering me a seat in his reserved compartment. 

 He always went through a set form : how tired 

 he was, short of sleep, and how much better a 

 fresh new hand could do a big day. At which I 

 bit, and found myself with his notebook, his 

 pencil, and his instructions to do a thousand 

 words and leave the last race to him. After a 

 time my wages were raised from getting nothing. 



