164 Among Men and Horses. 



ship was finished, his friends suspecting nothing and conse- 

 quently taking no precautions, allowed him to be balloted for, 

 as, so they thought, a mere matter of form, with the astound- 

 ing result to them, that he was blackballed. Had his proposer 

 and seconder any idea that the ballot would have gone against 

 him, there is no doubt but that they would have got a 

 sufficient number of favourable votes to have had him elected. 

 In any case, they could have withdrawn his name and have 

 saved him and themselves from the slight caused by their 

 inadvertence. Mr Bush and other gentlemen assured me that 

 this was the only approach to any ' unpleasantness ' ever con- 

 nected with Mr Maitland during his long career on the China 

 turf. I may mention that he still retains the privilege of 

 resuming his membership of the Shanghai Club, whenever he 

 chooses to return. 



Mr Maitland arrived in Calcutta from China with a couple 

 of horses about the year 1870, and he continued to hold his 

 own at 'the great game' with the best of them till 1880, when 

 he departed for Australia. He was a very peppery little 

 fellow, and took no trouble to conciliate the Indian brass gods 

 by bowing down before them. Consequently, he was most 

 unjustly treated on several occasions by the jacks in office. 

 Although I took his part more than once, I had no sympathy 

 for him in his rows ; for by the employment of a very small 

 amount of tact he might have had the said officials his 

 devoted friends instead of his bitter enemies. If these big- 

 wigs were asses for acting the part of piqued children, Mr 

 Maitland was a still greater donkey for annoying them, 

 especially as his part of the show was to make 

 money. 



At the races in China, the starting is horrible ; because, 

 as all the riders are amateurs, the club official does not like to 

 assert his authority. This of course is utterly wrong. The 

 story is told of Kelly Maitland going on at the start in a 

 race in Australia, with some antics which he had, no doubt, 

 often practised at Shanghai and Hong Kong. Mr Watson, 



