The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



153 



track. He held an interesting exhibition of 

 his work in Chicago some years ago, and is 

 now located in New York City. Mr. Dickey 

 lias achieved fame, also, as a cartoonist, his 

 very clever work in thai direction mi the Horse 

 Review being one of the particularly brilliant 

 features of the enterprising turf publication. 

 He is a cartoonist, too, of a clean vein of hu- 

 mor, his drawings never leaving- a scar of re- 

 gret in the memory of his subjects, so deli- 

 cately are they handled. 



Leigh S. Toman, son of the editor of the 

 Trotter and Pacer, has made a favorable 

 name for himself in reproductions of color 

 examples in issues of holiday numbers. He 

 appears at his best in decorative work. It is 

 pleasing to note that he overcomes the tend- 

 ency to employ a camera to secure his 

 poses, as never will that sort of work be 

 considered by a critic as "art." 



It is a fact today very few can earn a 

 living depending on painting mere ordered 

 work, and the advertising line of work seems 

 to offer but little of commercial encourage- 

 ment. Any painter, to stoop to paint some 

 ] iece intended merely to advertise, had bet- 

 ter put aside his layout, put on overalls and 

 dig- ditches if he must work or starve. 

 Where one has leisure, loves the work, and 

 need not worry as to the commercial side, 

 painting horses, if one but could have 

 Bingaras to work from, is mighty interesting 

 as a pastime. 



It ever seems strange that so many who 

 will pay high prices to purchase horses can 

 hardly be induced to order a portrait at 

 above, say, $50, whereas one almost always 

 finds in the homes of the wealthy some paint- 

 ing- of a favorite dog, and the work of the 

 Dutch cattle painters or Monks' splendid 

 sheep pieces command ready sale. The late 

 J. Malcolm Forbes, brother-in-law of that 

 true-blue sportsman, the late Colonel Henry 

 S. Russell, once told me he cared absolutely 

 nothing for an oil painting of a horse, yet 

 would pay as much as painters asked could 

 he hut secure photographs, absolutely true to 

 life, of equal areas. He showed me some 

 magnificent photos of Nancy Hanks, and 

 remarked, "They are perfect, no painting of 

 her possibly could please me as well." A 

 very liberal man and wealthy, he yet commis- 

 sioned some colorist to paint his beautiful 

 yachts, "Puritan" and "Mayflower." though 

 to he sure one could hang a yacht piece in 

 one's reception room where a portrait of a 

 horse would be considered only eligible to 

 hang in a den, billiard room, corridor, 

 stable, office or lounging room. 



CHAPTER II 



A Reminder of the Days When the 



Pool Box Told the Odds 



OH. for a return of those good old 

 days we liked, many of us, to 

 stand and watch "Ned" Morse, 

 or Frank Herdic, or Charlie 

 Stiles, or Ed Lowry, or Bride (of 

 Pride & Armstrong), or "Silver Bill" Riley 

 or someone else, "sell 'em out" and, as the 

 auctioneer knocked one down, to catch as he 

 stooped over and addressed his clerk, the 

 mysterious "Forty-nine" (Wallace Peirce), 

 "Hube" or "Starch" (the Brothers Hubin- 

 ger), or "S. W." (John McNally) or the 

 "Single M. number two," the "Andy" (A. J. 

 Welch) or the this or that. "Joe" might be 

 "Diamond Joe" (John Costen of Cincinnati) 

 or "Columbus Joe," for aught we knew. 



It was fun to watch a buyer like the late 

 Pendleton, of Providence, always "Pen" 

 everywhere. He could lift an eyelash, move 

 his ratty walking stick merely an inch or so. 

 or nod his head, and yet bet good chunks for 

 men like C. J. Hamlin, the late James 

 Golden, the seldom - seen - in - a - poolroom 

 "General" Turner, or others, and no one ever 

 saw or knew anything of it unless a careful 

 observer. Many times we were told to 

 "watch Pen," and, if he played Thus and So, 

 it was educated money working the charm. 



Back when Charlie Tanner was with the 

 lamented James A. Goldsmith (he never 

 drove those days, yet shipped the stable and 

 was of great value to both the famous reins- 

 man and Barney Perry at all moments), he 

 played thousands of dollars for the plucky 

 Orange County man, and, too, "Doc," as all 

 call him, knew about what the opposition had 

 done by way of trials, "tip-seconds," and the 

 current stable chat as to whether thev "were 

 meant" or not : if off their feed or having sore 

 thumbs or otherwise, and how near "over 

 their last race they were, etc.," and was, as 

 now, a very close observer. In those days I 

 guess comparatively few imagined that he 

 was a remarkably proficient speed maker in 

 embryo. 



Our old Boston tracks and one or two built 

 in boom times down at Portland, Ale., have 

 gone their way. Years ago we had a 

 splendid half-mile track circuit hereabouts, 

 with Lawrence, Worcester, Lowell, Fitch- 

 burg-, Taunton. Brockton, Attleboro, Woon- 

 socket and various towns in Connecticut in- 

 cluded, yet even this now has given way be- 

 fore the anti-pool selling crusade, and seem- 

 ingly but the "strictly fair" circuit has a 

 chance to live, unless, mayhap, the Bay 



