I must appeal to you, the unimpeachable Cæsar, in athletics as in all
other matters, to secure me some small meed of public sympathy and
consideration. During the, happily, almost past year, I have been the
victim of gross ill-treatment at the hands, nay, worse, the feet, of
athletes of various kinds. I have been cut in public by some of the
best performers; I have been mercilessly beaten, and persistently
lowered, till it is a wonder to myself that I have any self-respect
left. I am too good a sportsman at least, Sir, to complain of rough
usage in a fair way, but while I must suffer for the ambition of every
ped. and every wheel-man, my colleague and close relation, who is
generally known as "The Standard," is put higher and higher, without
really doing anything at all to deserve his elevation. I have had the
people all shouting about me; I have been the subject of columns of
statistical gush in the Sporting Press, and now I am constrained to
appeal to a non-professional for bare justice in my crippled old age.
Wishing you a happier New Year than the old one has been to me, I am
yours, in disgust,