98 RACE RIDING. 



the leader, seeing that he had nothing else to beat, 

 holloaed at the top of his voice : " Pull out of my way 

 — you are beaten ! " So great was the reputation of the 

 formidable jockey behind him, that had our deaf friend 

 heard him, there is no manner of doubt but that he 

 would have "pulled out of the way." Fortunately 

 he did not hear, and won very easily. This is the only 

 case which I can quote as of the advantage of having 

 defective hearing — at least, at racing. 



I remember, however, a case that occurred abroad, 

 in which rascality was frustrated by the fact of a would- 

 be tempter having an impediment in his speech. A 

 jockey who stammered very badly, had backed the 

 horse he was riding, for a great deal of money. At 

 the distance post he found himself collared by an 

 outsider, w^hich came up full of running. Knowing his 

 man, he stuttered out to his unexpected opponent : 

 '' I — I — I w — w — will g — g — g — " ; but, in the ex- 

 citement of the moment, he could not complete his 

 sentence. Brimful of mortification at his loss, he re- 

 proached his friend for not having listened to him, and 

 said that he would have given him a hundred to have 

 pulled. " Then why the deuce didn't you say so," was 

 all the consolation he got from his brother rogue. 



