3G2 HOESE-EACING IN FRANCE 



Telegraplie,' ' L'Evenement,' ' Le Petit Moniteiir,' ' Le 

 XIX^ Siecle,' 'Le National,' 'Paris,' 'Le Triboulet,' 'Vie 

 Moderne,' ' Petit Caporal,' ' L'Intransigeant,' ' L'Echo 

 Agricole,' ' Tam-Tam,' ' L' Autorite,' ' Le Siicces,' ' La 

 Justice.' 



As in England so in France, the practice of horse- 

 racing has led sometimes to detestable acts of cruelty, 

 and the practice of breeding from ' pur sang ' (the 

 ' pure blood of the Desert,' whether Arab, Barb, Turk, 

 or any other that there may be to which the term 

 ' thoroughbred ' applies) has led to much difference of 

 opinion. 



As regards cruelty, it would be difficult to find a 

 worse case than that of the two ' trotters ' Verny and 

 Mauvaise-Tete, matched (for 15,000 francs, or 600/.) to 

 trot thirty [French) leagues (120 kilometres) without 

 stopping, in the neighbourhood of Paris. The affair 

 'came off' on July 5, 1879. The route was from the 

 Arc de Triomphe de I'Etoile, through the Bois de Bou- 

 logne, St. Cloud, La Marche, Eocquencourt, St. Germain, 

 Mantes, and Eosnj^, returning by the same road as far 

 as St. Cloud, along the bank of the Seine to Boulogne, 

 at the back of Baron de Rothschild's chateau, ending at 

 tlie cascade on the racecourse. Poor Mauvaise-Tete 

 was pulled up at St. Germain on the return journey, 

 and died then and there. The winner, Verny, arrived at 

 the goal, but was not in much better plight than the 

 other, dropped down on entering the stable, and never 

 got up again. The veterinary surgeon who tried to 

 bleed the poor creature could get nothing but ' a sort 

 of currant jelly.' The French papers, it should be 

 mentioned, expressed notliing but disgust at the pro- 

 ceedings ; it is only a pity the disgust was not expressed 

 l^efore the match, Avhicli was well advertised, took place. 



