Sporting notions of present days and past

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204
1
SPORTING NOTIONS
to dodge reporters and putting them wrong if
possible. Nowadays, when brethren of my craft
are catered for so magnificently (at their firm's
expense, understand)
with
steam launches laid
on and all manner of conveniences for following
the work, you would scarcely believe in earlier
coaches pulling their men up sharp because
newspaper men were about on the barge-walk
with clocks, or somebody in that line was
discovered on a steamer. But that was quite
a common occurrence.
I can remember, too, when your humble
servant was the only one, barring 'Varsity men,
engaged in the same business, who was not
objected to as passenger on a little ship lent
by a friend of mine to one of the 'Varsity
boat clubs. Detrimentals used to be spotted,
challenged, and required to leave the boat forth-
with, and there was talk of marooning such on
Chiswick Eyot with a big spring tide coming.
All that sort of thing has died out, as has for
the most part sugaring in trials to order, or for
personal purposes of betting—a practice which
undoubtedly obtained. Why on earth, when
wagering is so utterly put out of all count by
the contestants, as it professedly is and has
been, any mystery should have been created and
maintained passes my comprehension altogether.
But in the not long ago every expedient to be
invented was resorted to for the purpose of
fogging the public. And well
, I will not fall
into the error which overstating the merits of
the Blues invites me to commit, and show cause
against the
Standard's
most entertaining writer—
at least, I will not except to ask what one of our
great coaches said a year or two back when