My Racing Adventures 



but he was in his grave — and when clients remon- 

 strated with that false prophet on account of his 

 audacity, he professed to cherish a becoming 

 horror of the situation. " What ! " he cried 

 indignantly. " The horse dead, is he ? And what 

 of it ? Has nobody ever heard of ' dead meat ' 

 before in the betting market ? and who am I that 

 I should not be allowed occasionally to handle a 

 putrid morsel ? " Nobody questioned his fitness 

 for the job. 



With regard, moreover, to this branch of our 

 enthralling subject, I have received a note from 

 a Turfite of many years' exciting experience, 

 and from it I may cull the following choice 

 passage : 



" Whilst a few ' men of observation ' may die 

 in the odour of sanctity, most of them rarely 

 have any money at that time or afterwards — I 

 mean previously. They give what they earn ' a 

 run,' and are surprised at the smallness of their 

 wage remnant. As one of the tribe avowed in 

 the hour of his supreme anguish — for the brokers 

 had visited him, and he was sleeping with his 

 family in a loose-box — ' I make my money out 

 of horses, and I am ass enough to lose it in the 

 same way.' Such a genuine lamentation ought 

 to arouse our warmest sympathy, if we have any 

 — which is not likely, considering the present 

 price of under-done steak and inferior beer." 



234 



