When I heard that there was a cricket club in connection with the Apollo
Fire Office I was glad, and still more so when I found that the team
played other Fire Offices; for the Apollo is by no means the only one in
London, though easily the best. Of course I never thought that in an
office full of grown men I should be able to play in matches; but Dicky
Travers explained to me that I might hope, if I was any good, as only a
comparatively small number of the clerks actually played, though a large
number patronised the games with their presence and came to the Annual
Dinner at the far-famed Holborn Restaurant. This restaurant, I may say,
is almost a palace in itself, and the walls are decorated with sumptuous
marbles and works of foreign art. The waiters are also foreign. There
are fountains and a band to play while you eat; and it shows how
accustomed the London mind can get to almost anything in the way of
luxury, for I have seen people eating through brilliant masterpieces of
music and not in the least put off their food by them, though every
instrument in the band was playing simultaneously. But, of course, there
were no bands or fountains where I went for my Bath bun and glass of
milk. As a matter of fact, this was rather a light meal for me, but I
hoped to get accustomed to it. Anyway the result, when dinner-time came
at the flat of my Aunt Augusta, was remarkably good, and I used to eat
in a way that filled her with fear. And, after eating, I felt that I
simply must have exercise of some sort, and I used to go out in the dark
to the Regent’s Park and run for miles at my best pace. It worried
policemen when I flew past them, because it is very unusual to race
about after dark in London if you are honest, and policemen are,
unfortunately, a suspicious race and, owing to their work, get into the
way of thinking that anything out of the common may be a clew. Once
having flown past a policeman and run without stopping to a certain
lamp-post, I went back to the man and explained to him that I had to sit
on an office stool most of the day, and that at night, after dinner, I
felt a frightful need for active exercise, and so took it in this way. I
thought he would rather applaud the idea, but he said it was a fool’s
game and might lead to trouble if I persisted in it. He advised me to
join an athletic club and a gymnasium, and I told him that the advice
was good and thanked him. As a matter of fact, I was able to tell the
policeman also that a great friend of mine had put me up for the London
Athletic Club, and that I hoped soon to hear that I had been elected as
a member. I mentioned Dicky Travers and thought the policeman would be a
good deal surprised that I actually knew this famous man. However, the
surprise was mine, because the policeman had never heard of him. But
sport was a sealed book to him, as the saying is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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