32X A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



name, and on various racecourses is allowed to 

 rob all and sundry with immunity from all conse- 

 quences. As to the racecourse rough, he, too, is 

 allowed to do pretty much as he pleases, and the 

 members of the brigade to which he belongs have 

 the resources of civilisation at their command. 

 At one Epsom Summer Meeting a party of these 

 bullies attacked a foreign gentleman, denounced 

 him as a welsher, and robbed and maltreated 

 him at the very entrance of the Grand Stand ! 

 Every person who has heard the cry of " welsher " 

 uttered at a race gathering knows that it is the 

 precursor to a scene of cruel violence and positive 

 outrao^e. 



No one can accord sympathy to the professional 

 welsher ; but bad as he is, he must be protected 

 from lynch law. There ought to be some properly 

 constituted tribunal to which he should be held 

 responsible — his offence is the obtaining of money 

 by false pretences, and it is incumbent on the 

 Jockey Club to devise machinery for the trial and 

 punishment of these pests of the turf. And care 

 must be taken that the racecourse roughs are not 

 allowed to devise plots with the object of having 

 respectable persons attacked and robbed under 

 the false plea of their being welshers. These are 

 matters of police, on which the Jockey Club may, 

 in all fairness, be asked to legislate. It has 

 already done a little something in that way, but 

 it ought to organise a band of special constables 

 to assist in the regulation of the ring. Habit 

 and repute welshers are as well known and 

 as easily identified as the popular jockeys. They 

 should be prevented from entering any of 

 the rings where betting is carried on, and if 



