The Apocrypha i i 



started out to collect his claim, accompanied by a 

 young legal friend, in the first chaise used in the 

 Hub, which was considered very " swell " in those 

 days. After a long drive they arrived at their desti- 

 nation, and were received by the huntsman in pink, 

 just in from a successful morning, and their host, 

 little suspecting their errand, invited them to break- 

 fast. So lavish was his hospitality that they returned 

 without mentioning the claim. 



At Winchester, during the winter of 1881, there 

 was a great deal of talk about a Myopia spring race 

 meeting. The conservatives were strong in their 

 opinion that Boston would not patronize racing, and 

 that it would be a flat failure. But the " plungers " 

 prevailed, with the true Myopian spirit of going 

 ahead and surmounting obstacles. The enthusiastic 

 agreed to back what seemed rather a gigantic enter- 

 prise in those days, and a steeple-chase meeting was 

 advertised at Beacon Park, Brighton, in the spring of 

 1882. A long streamer "with the strange device" 

 Myopia waved defiance to Boston Puritan prejudice 

 against racing. 



A party of New York men who had come on 

 to Boston to ride, while in a carriage driving to 

 the Park, were asking each other what "Myopia" 

 meant, when to their astonishment the driver, with 

 the usual "Beg your pardon, sir," in rather a didac- 

 tic manner informed them that " Myopia " was de- 



