276 Among Men and Horses. 



manner of the principal plaintiff, he narrated how the whole 

 affair had occurred. The landrost, who no doubt knew far 

 more of the histoire intime of the parties, than redounded to 

 their credit, 'told them off' in a mercilessly contemptuous 

 manner. He said that he preferred to believe black men than 

 white men such as they ; and that he was determined to stop 

 fellows who considered themselves ' swells ' from ill-using the 

 natives. As to the policeman, the magistrate merely asked 

 him, ' What have you been paid for all this ? ' at which there 

 was such a loud roar of laughter from the people in the court 

 that the answer of the guilty-looking constable was lost. The 

 landrost told him to leave the box. When ordering October 

 to be released, he gave him to understand that he could have 

 his legal remedy. I thought, however, it would be better for 

 me to recompense October in a way he would deem amply 

 sufficient, than to stir up any race hatred, which is a very 

 dangerous form of explosive in the Transvaal ; than to insti- 

 tute a counter action on behalf of our servant ; so we let the 

 matter drop. Although this trial formed the subject of con- 

 versation all over the place, two out of the three Johannes- 

 burg daily papers took no notice whatsoever of it, and the 

 third one merely gave the finding, without making any 

 allusion to the evidence or the remarks of the landrost. 

 This example of South African journalistic policy is worthy 

 of note. 



At the time of my arrival in Johannesburg, the local 

 sportsmen were busily engaged in preparing for the races, 

 the principal event of which was the Johannesburg Handicap. 

 Knowing that I was a veterinary surgeon and had experience 

 in the training of racehorses, Mr Ben Curtis and his cousin 

 Mr Lay asked my advice about a horse of theirs, called 

 Vichy, who was entered for this race. This son of Hermit 

 had run about fifteen times in England, and had succeeded 

 in winning only a couple of small selling races. He was then 

 sent out to South Africa. When I saw him, he was lame in 

 one foreleg from a sprained suspensory ligament and swollen 



