AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 481 



follow. His abstemious life in the midst of many 

 temptations indicates great strength of will and moral 

 control ; his modesty, his deference to all classes of men, 

 yet his firmness and assertion of self-respect when 

 necessary, are traits of character and conduct which 

 speak of a well-balanced mind, and a well-ordered 

 manner of life. The result of all this is that, after more 

 than half a century's connection with the Turf, John 

 Osborne is one of the best respected of men, and that, 

 too, by all classes, rich and poor, high and low, in the 

 kingdom. 



" Honesty is the best policy " in a jockey as much 

 as in any other section of the community. Yet judged 

 as a body, and weighing up the many and almost 

 irresistible temptations and baits thrown across their 

 path by people richer, older, and presumably better 

 informed, and of higher social status, the EngUsh jockey 

 will compare not unfavourably with many classes of the 

 community. There is more villainy enacted in one 

 month on the Stock Exchanges of the great capitals — 

 London, New York, and Paris, to wit — than there is on 

 the Turf in many a year. Prelates of the Church, and 

 the " unco' guid," who cast up their eyes in hypocritical 

 horror at the mere mention of a jockey, a horse, or a race, 

 gamble to their hearts' content on 'Change without the 

 least scruple of conscience. They condemn racing as 

 an unholy practice, and in their blindness overlook its 

 benefits to horse, to man, to the countr}^, and to trade. 

 This is the miserable class who 



" Compound for sins they are inclined to, 

 By damning those they have no mind to." 



Suppose we could win a little fortune on a gee-gee, 

 would we be any less thought of in Society, or even by 

 2i 



