CHAPTER XXII 



RACING JOURNALISTS 



The First "Special Commissioner," Fred Taylor Early Impressions of 

 him "Schooling" Journalists "Treasure" Dalbiac Others 

 Earlier Examples Frank Lawley Per Contra "Pavo " The 

 Chattanooga Episode Good Old Cole He loses a Sovereign 

 John Corlett and Charles Greenwood Corlett and Another 

 Man's Walnuts His Purchase of Queen Gold Greenwood a 

 Great Journalist and " Reader " of Racej Fred Ball very capable 

 Regretted Omissions 



THE first of the above who ever attracted me was 

 Fred Taylor, "The Special Commissioner" of 

 The Sportsman in the sixties and early seventies. 

 He had not much of a literary style, but he understood 

 what he was writing about, and that is the great 

 essential. I know I thought no end of his writings in 

 those early days. He was originally, to the best of my 

 belief, an army vet, and, I remember, he had lost a 

 forefinger by some accident. He was a very well-known 

 figure at ring-sides, and he used to go round to studs 

 and stables very much as I do or ought to do though 

 I have somewhat enlarged on his sphere, by going 

 abroad and striking into other changes. 



That Fred Taylor must have been a very capable 

 journalist I cannot doubt, or he would not have impressed 

 himself so strongly on me, even when I was at school. 

 The plain fact was that he understood his subject, and 

 throughout very many years sporting journalists neither 

 understood their subject nor were they educated men. 



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