272 PRACTICABLE REFORMS. 
or St. Leger, it may be—until the eve of running. For by 
means of a closely kept arcanum you may win one of these 
and secure a well deserved fortune. 
I have myself used the cards and found them to answer the 
end intended admirably. This, and this only to my mind, 
is the way secrets can be kept. In large stables, where 
thirty or forty yearlings are annually added to the “ string ”— 
what an inestimable boon it would be to owners and trainers 
to have the knowledge of the merits of their horses to them- 
selves; defying the touts at exercise, and the boys in the 
stable ! : 
So much then for stable secrets. It may now be well 
to turn our attention to the other mere boys whose employ- 
ment as jockeys has been shown to be so hurtful, and to 
examine the reforms that may be beneficially introduced in 
their case. 
It requires no philosopher to tell us that a boy of 7 stone 
must be preferable in the saddle to one of half the weight ; 
for he possesses as much knowledge and infinitely more 
strength than the little urchin who, after ruining his em- 
ployers and all connected with him, retires from the scene, 
to be replaced by others as useless and audacious as himself, 
if they do not succeed in surpassing their predecessor in 
these qualities. 
These self-styled jockeys, who are physically debarred from 
riding properly (I will not say, with skill, for the term is absurd 
when applied to children) start as masters of the art without a 
rudimentary knowledge of it. Often they are unable to sit 
on their horses, whilst they are seldom able to guide, and 
never to assist, them. Many frightful accidents prove this; 
the fearful example in the Metropolitan Stakes at Epsom when 
a boy not only lost his own life, but endangered the lives 
