206 PETERSBURG IN WINTER 



Match trotting is greatly patronised by the Russian 

 public, who, in Petersburg, assemble on the stands of the 

 trotting ground of the Semenovsky Platz (Fig. 50) in large 

 crowds, every Sunday and on other occasions throughout the 

 winter to witness the races that are run there. I had so 

 little time to devote to this sport while I was in Russia, 

 that I can't say if it is carried on throughout the summer in 

 other parts of that empire. As the flat and illegitimate game 

 is played on the other side of the river during summer, which 

 is the fashionable off-season, little or no trotting takes place 

 while there is no snow, which is generally frozen pretty hard 

 on its surface during the cold weather. Mr. Manser, the 

 well-known Newmarket trainer, used, I believe, to train in 

 his early days with much success in Russia, and of course 

 saw a good deal of the winter trotting. When he returned 

 to England, he tried very highly the credulity of his New- 

 market friends, who implicitly believed the wonderful stones 

 he told them, until one day he happened to speak about 

 races on the ice in Russia. That veracious story was too 

 much for his untravelled listeners, who ever afterwards called 

 him Rom I mean, a novelist. 



The trotting club is a wealthy institution ; as its races 

 are well attended, and it draws a commission on the large 

 sums that pass through its pari-mutuels. Mr. Wachter, a 

 German gentleman, wields the club ; because, so Starr told 

 me, he is the treasurer. Russian trotting men are bitterly 

 jealous of the American professionals who have settled in 

 their midst, and who make a very fair living out of the game. 

 For this they deserve an immense amount of credit ; because 

 Russians are staunch Tories and believe in protected 

 interests. These Americans told me many tales of favourit- 

 ism, which no doubt the other side would cap with those of 

 guile. Joe Howells, if I remember his name rightly, was 

 once heavily fined by the club for some misdemeanour 



