52 'THE DANEBURY CONFEDERACY' 



honestly instruct them. Men calling themselves gentle- 

 men were found as unscrupulous in days gone by as any 

 that exist to-day ; and probably will be so until the end 

 of time. I, at all events, see no power that may be 

 counted upon to crush this regrettable feature in racing 

 matters. It is an evil not easily detected, although 

 known to exist ; and too powerful, I fear, to be grappled 

 with at present. 



As a matter of fact, we may be content to know that 

 Messrs. Gully and Hill did not amass the enormous sums 

 which they at one time put together by the innocent 

 process of backing their own horses, or even by laying 

 against them in the rare instances in which such a course 

 is justifiable. Yet this always doubtful practice cannot, 

 in any sense, be considered other than dishonest in the 

 case in which laying commissions are accepted. For the 

 agents, who receive them, know that the horses so laid 

 against will not run ; and it is their own interest to see 

 that they do not. Thus the backers have no chance of 

 winning, which makes the transaction as dishonest, 

 according to the rules of racing, as it must be odious in 

 the sight of every man of principle. 



As for the practices of Messrs. Gully, Hill and Co., we 

 may learn something from what appeared recently in the 

 columns of the Sporting World. The writer says : ' In 

 fact, it was out of the " dead uns," which used to be the 

 chief source of profit to the operator in the days prior to 

 the telegraph and training reports, that Fred Swindell, 

 like Harry Hill and others, derived the bulk of his large 

 fortune.' 



And well may the result named have been attained. 

 For with Hill offering to lay, and Gully to back, and 

 Joshua Arnold willing to do either or both all being 

 confederates the public was completely mystified by the 



