AND OTHER SKETCHES 53 



at the present day for a meeting extending over ten days. 



At the time I speak of there was no fence around Carl- 

 ton Park. It was practically an open common. True, 

 there was a snake fence along some portion of it, facing 

 on the Dundas road, but it was in a dilapidated condition 

 and any person could get over it. The stand, capable 

 of accommodating at the most three hundred people, was 

 a ramshackle affair that had stood the blasts of many 

 winters and the warping heat of many summers. An 

 admission fee of twenty-five cents was charged, and pre- 

 tence for a gate was made in the shape of stretching a 

 long bar across the lane leading up from the highroad to 

 the track. 



It was calculated that on the opening day fully eight 

 thousand people were in attendance, and notwithstanding 

 the unprotected condition of the course, over four thou- 

 sand people were decent enough to go the long way round 

 and pay their twenty-five cents to enter. The horses 

 when finishing had to run through a living lane for fully 

 two hundred yards up the stretch, running southward 

 from the stand, as several thousand people had gathered 

 and fringed the course a dozen deep on either side. It 

 became necessary before every finish for the mounted 

 clerk of the course to gallop up and down, begging the 

 people to fall back. They good-naturedly acquiesced, and 

 not a single accident marred the sport any day of the 

 meeting. Pools were sold in the city at the Terrapin 

 Restaurant, then located on King street east, imme- 

 diately west of where the Albany Club is now located. 

 Pool selling on the track was also very heavy. At the 

 meeting alluded to the returns were made by Messrs. 

 Quimby, Forbes and Page. The total amount sold fig- 

 ured up to $49,865. 



The great betting race of the meeting was the mile and 

 a quarter heats, won by Lady Washington. On this race 

 alone over $15,000 was wagered, some of the represen- 

 tative men of the city standing in front of the auctioneer 

 and betting $200 and $300 for first choice, some of the 

 pools filling to $500 and $600. 



