My Racing Adventures 



explosive point. One scribe, purporting to be a 

 sort of " watcher," honoured me with an epistle 

 from which I make an extract, to wit : 



" Pray excuse me, a stranger and no Blucher 

 at that, for trespassing on your time and atten- 

 tion ; but if I don't somebody else will, and I like 

 to have the first run. Take no notice of the 

 weary touts who may surround you. What they 

 chiefly enjoy (next to four arf) is plenty of fresh 

 air with idleness, and if the ozone were not cheap 

 as well as fresh, they could not fill their stomachs 

 at the price. If they did not do some of their 

 work lying down, it would not be done at all, 

 and a good job, too. I am a practical judge of 

 the race-horse from his cradle to the grave, and 

 I'm not afraid to put my money on him like a 

 man — when I have any money worth spitting 

 on for luck. My income is, however, generally 

 in the clouds rolling by instead of in my pocket, 

 and when I go shopping now my wife carries the 

 basket — for ornament, not for use. But when 

 boon companions, who are certainly no boon, 

 tell me, in the hour of rude festivity, that there 

 are few good tipsters, and that, if they were 

 followed consistently all the year round, they 

 would break the Bank of England unless that 

 institution made it a rule never to have more 

 than a dollar on each way, I am at a loss how 

 to wither them by my scorn. Can you help me, 

 Arthur, and ease my troubled mind ? " 



It was impossible for me to help him, or to 

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