230 CANADIAN TURF RECOLLECTIONS 



A CANADIAN FREEBOOTER. 



Yes, he was a particularly smart customer was Mr. 



L , and many a horseman around Brantford will 



make aflfidavit to that effect without a moment's hesita- 

 tion. He carried a whole canful of sweet oil around with 

 him concealed under his tongue, and when he was engaged 

 in a ringing tour it would take more than three ordi- 

 narily sharp men on the judges' stand to spot him. 



On one of his piratical trips down through Pennsyl- 

 vania he took along with him a horse with a record low 

 down in the "thirties" and, as it transpired afterwards, 

 he started not only in the three-minute, fifty and forty-five 

 classes, but also took a hand in two or three races at the 

 fairs reserved for gentlemen 's roadsters. My informant, 

 who stumbled across him in Venango County, Pa., de- 

 clared that Sol Smith Russell could not have improved 

 upon L 's get-up and his assumption of the char- 

 acter of a local preacher. 



He introduced himself as Brother Wilkins, a travelling 

 local preacher, whose habitation when he was not swing- 

 ing around the circle, was a few miles back from Pit Hole, 

 and having run across a Fair bill showing a prize for 

 road horses, why he just thought he had a pretty good 

 smart kind of a roadster, and as a local preacher's salary 

 wasn't a very hefty one, he just guessed he'd let the old 

 horse take a hack at the company, and maybe he'd have 

 luck enough to get a little bit of the prize money which 

 would be considerable welcome. The purse was one hun- 

 dred dollars, and his entry was as follows : ^ ' Joseph Wilk- 

 ins, Pine Tree Hollow, b.g. Missionary, breeding, don't 

 know. ' ' 



When Mr. L , in the character of Wilkins, of Pine 



Hollow, appeared on the track he was garbed in a long 

 black coat, straight buttoned up from chin to waist, and 

 a very clerical looking black hat on his head. Prelimin- 



