68 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



I could not find by the report that the Chief 

 Justice said that 'betting' gave 'a tendency' to 

 gambling. I rather think that he looked upon 

 betting as actual gambling. The gambling spirit 

 led the ' ten-dollar amateurs ' mentioned in the 

 Times to ape the racing men by wearing gaiters 

 and riding-breeches ; the gambling spirit led the 

 young vagabonds sentenced by the Chief Justice 

 to go fresh from the ring to recoup their losses on 

 the turf by ' pulling something down to-night.' 



How bitterly the old hands in crime, whom the 

 Chief Justice spoke of as viewing with 'admiration 

 and amazement ' the exploits of the young, must 

 bewail the sad dulness of the old times, when sprint- 

 ing had not so developed as it has of late ! Possibly 

 if it were made a misdemeanour to allow the racing 

 of horses less than four or five years old, or races for 

 less than four or five miles, the rapid deterioration 

 of the thoroughbred and of ' the basis of Society ' 

 would be alike checked, and there might be fewer 

 ' gaiters ' and ' riding-breeches,' and less of our 

 youths of eighteen and twenty going from the 

 betting-ring ' to pull something down to-night.' 

 How would it do to enact that to bet at all on 

 races or ' the tote ' or sweepstakes should be mis- 

 demeanours ? 



Races such as, according to Captain Burnaby, the 

 Kirghiz practise on the great Asiatic steppes, from 

 twenty to thirty miles, at the rate of from eighteen 

 to twenty miles an hour, with half-starved horses, 



