Rides in the " National" 



Captain J. M. Gordon's " Leybourne," who 

 proved to be a nice, safe conveyance, and scored 

 in clever fashion. Not equally fortunate was I 

 in the same race in 1895, when I steered Mr 

 R. G. Allen's " Aerolite," trained by myself, and 

 he gave me rather a picturesque " toss." It took 

 me some time to collect my scattered faculties. 

 The shooting stars that danced before my eyes 

 were not of my own manufacture. Said the 

 inevitable wag, after I had risen with difficulty : 

 " As an acrobat, dear boy, you would assuredly 

 make a fortune, but why do you perform without 

 a net ? It's flying in the face of Providence to 

 risk a nose like that " — he pointed at mine, but 

 he was afraid to pull it — " without the necessary 

 protective apparatus underneath." 



Why does it happen, by -the -bye, that 

 when one longs to meet a sympathetic friend 

 — as just after a wicked "crumpler" that has 

 almost disjointed us — one encounters a sort of 

 Job's comforter who tries to be funny at our 

 small expense ? He expects us to see the point 

 of an obscure joke — maybe there is no point 

 — when our senses have scarcely returned to us. 

 I would have such persons chained up whilst an 

 unfortunate jockey is recovering his reason. He 



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