270 PRACTICABLE REFORMS 
they know to the touts; these immediately transmit the 
information to their employers, who, more inexcusable 
than themselves, use this dishonest means for their own 
emolument. 
This is a practice that all who care for the turf must 
wish should be stopped. For, I emphatically repeat that 
it is in the stables that the mischief is done. The boys, 
who can hardly be said to know right from wrong, become 
the tools of designing knaves. By these men they are 
entrapped to act dishonestly towards their employers by the 
bait of a trifling money reward, or luxuries and pleasure— 
the latter frequently of an immoral kind. The result is, 
ruin to the lads, and to yourself (unless you can counteract 
the machinations of their tempters) the subversion of all 
your plans. To put an end to such a state of things is 
obviously no easy matter; but yet I think something may 
be done towards inserting the thin end of the wedge, which 
time may be trusted to drive home, to the benefit of the 
boys and the extinction of the tout. 
My plan is: in the first place, to have all stalls and boxes 
numbered, and to call their inmates by the number of the 
stall or box each occupies. Asa matter of fact, it is easier 
” 
to say “No. 1,” or “No. 10,” than “colt out of Camera 
Obscura,” or “Old Gipsy Boy.” This simple plan properly 
worked is thoroughly effective. For if the boys are ignorant 
of the age and pedigree of the horses, they cannot know for 
what races they are entered, or whether this or the other 
horse is doing well or ill ; and of course they cannot transmit 
to others information they do not themselves possess. 
When your employers with their friends pay a visit to 
see the horses, you hand to each of the party a card with 
the following printed on it:—You are desired to ask no 
