272 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



time at Epsom and elsewhere, but he was always cheer- 

 ful and popular, and no matter what was the state of the 

 exchequer he always fed his horses well and on the best. 



He was one of the best rough-and-ready platform 

 speakers I ever heard, and invaluable at election times. 

 Often and often have I played second fiddle to him on 

 such occasions. There were few, I think, who realised 

 that, amid his Bohemianism, he kept the instinct of a 

 parson to the last, and not only that, he was a thorough 

 patriot and when the war came he abandoned all idea 

 of racing, never went to a meeting and never made 

 a bet ; but, having secured the patent of a wonderful 

 machine for making horseshoes, got himself financed 

 by a bank, broke through all opposition at the War 

 Office, and obtained from Lord Kitchener an order to 

 produce as many horse and mule shoes as he possibly 

 could. A great feature in obtaining the contract was 

 that the Parson, having lived some two years in Belgium, 

 understood the people, and had been able to get a large 

 number of Belgian workers. This was a novelty at the 

 time, when Belgians were being kept here for nothing. 

 There came a later period, when unskilled British 

 operators had got to understand the work, and Labour 

 agitators had got at the Belgians, who were by that time 

 making as much as & a week, with the result that they 

 demanded improved conditions and threatened to strike. 



Then Parson Parkes, being sure of his British 

 substitutes, reported the Belgians to their authorities in 

 London, and they were all conscripted forthwith and 

 taken away to the front. 



He continued making horse and mule shoes, night 

 and day, to the end of the war and six weeks afterward, 

 and during that time he came into business connection 



