78 CANADIAN TURF RECOLLECTIONS 



around. The first pedestrian to pass by was a well- 

 known, self-made man — one of the kind who worships 

 his creator. My old friend had scarce time to remark, 

 ''there goes an old duffer that never dodged anything in 

 his life but a beggar or a subscription sheet, see him go 

 under," but old moneybags didn't go under. With a 

 quick glance upward he slipped to the curbstone and 

 passed around, glancing about at the same time to see if 

 his shirk had been noticed. The occurrence rather dis- 

 heartened my friend, and when five out of the next six 

 passing did the same thing he called "enough" and 

 straightway settled the wager. 



That rare good pattern of an all-round sportsman, the 

 late William Bookless, of Guelph, would stand anything 

 on earth but a black cat. Great Scott ! if one of that kind 

 crossed his path about racing time, he had not a particle 

 of confidence in his ability to guess anything right. Poor 

 Jack Munro had a holy horror of being passed by a red- 

 haired woman when he was bound for the races, and I 

 remember once when driving with him from the Russell 

 House, Ottawa, to the track, Jack suddenly called to the 

 driver to pull up, but before the order could be obeyed he 

 had the cab door open, jumped out and ran into the hotel 

 we happened to be passing, all, as he admitted, to save 

 being passed by the red-haired girl who was driving 

 towards us. The late John Forbes had a prejudice 

 against yellow dogs, while his partner, John Quimby, 

 would rather walk a mile out of his way than meet a 

 colored girl on his way to the track. All of which goes to 

 show that ridiculous ideas will sometimes influence the 

 human mind. 



