Book Exercise 139 FREE

The day of the University Boat Race is the first outdoor spring holiday, and though the weather may be unsatisfactory, the crowd on the river and tow-path is an immense and motley one. Here we have the Parliamentary hand, the insurance broker, the compiler of prospectuses and amalgamation schemes, the arbitrator engaged in arbitration cases, members of the legislature who have turned their backs on legislative matters for a short time, the administrator and the administratrix; there we have ladies in the height of fashion full of enthusiasm for the success of their favourites; the mischievous errand boys with their baskets over their shoulders, whose mischief is excusable for once; indeed, all sorts and conditions of influential and uninfluential persons, each of whom has probably decided his or her choice in a most arbitrary manner. The newspaper reporter is there with his pencil and book jotting down any matters of moment in the characters which delight the hearts of all Pitmanites. The result of the race is sent by telegraphic communication, both telegram and cable, to all parts of the globe. Undoubtedly people think more of the manner of winning than of the prize at stake, and thus the boat race exemplifies the saying of the most lovable of all Scotsmen, Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote: “Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.” Here we have a splendid motto to remember in our everyday life and in our pastimes.