210 PROFESSIONAL HARDSHIPS. 
One of the greatest of these hardships is changeability 
on the part of owners, some of the effects of which have 
been glanced at in the course of our examination. 
In some respects there is no more thankless office than 
that of a trainer. Few men get more roundly abused as a 
body, or censured as individuals, by public opinion. Why 
this should be I cannot undertake to say; but that it is 
so there is proof enough, and possibly it has its rise in 
the disappointed hopes of foolish men. 
Nor does the evil end here. Public opinion reacts on 
the wavering minds of owners; and as a result of the 
ignorance of the one and the caprice of the other, the 
fidelity of the trainer is suspected, for no other cause than 
because he has been unable to realise expectations baseless 
as the fabric of a dream. The public are too impatient of 
defeat. The exalted notion of their knowledge of the 
horse they back, must make him win. If he do not, then 
the trainer, and the trainer only, is to blame for incom- 
petency ; or worse, for aiming to secure his own base ends. 
It is fortunately not so with all. There are many excellent 
men, owners of horses and others who back them, that 
are far above reproach. But others, and many, like rational- 
ists, only believe what they see, whilst unhappily, their 
vision is distorted by self-interest. Most men enjoy im- 
munity from slander; but the trainer only so long as suc- 
cess attends his often thankless efforts. Should a change 
come, his life is destroyed it may be said, for his means of 
livelihood is taken from him, 
As to the origin of this changeability on the part of 
employers, there are other causes than the idle talk of the 
public ; for this, did it stand alone, might be treated with 
indifference. But when friends will seek to make owners 
