It is not my province or intention here to go very deeply into illustrative detail in the matter of the turf. It is better to be luminous than voluminous. But there are one or two points which may be new and instructive for the non-gambling sportsman. Here is a recent quotation from a well-known English “sporting” paper--one of those, by the way, which conveys “humour” direct from the pit to the front page. It is about some English jockeys in America-- “Our jockeys are having a hard time, in a way, inasmuch as they are being kept under the closest surveillance by Pinkerton detectives. They are practically caged off from the public, are escorted to the scales and paddock, are not allowed to speak to any one except an employer, and then only when mounting, and their valets must wear a distinctive uniform, with numbers on their sleeves. This is reform with a vengeance, and by no means agreeable to some of our young swells, who are also shadowed after the races.” “_By sports like these are all their cares beguiled!_” Was Goldsmith a prophet? It is not always easy to remember that the professed aim of the Jockey Club is “the furtherance of the breeding and preservation of the English thoroughbred horse.” Yet to-day the officers of foreign armies buy Australian walers. They won’t purchase English stallions. I belong to the “_Cercle Privée civil et militaire_” of Bruges, a great military centre. Every day the General commanding the district and his staff are in the Club. They tell me that English horses are no longer looked upon as they were upon the Continent. Does not this “_give one furiously to think_,” as my friend the General said here the other morning? Doping in the interests of the gambling market seems to be beginning to tell! The gambling industry is organized with consummate skill and great business capacity. Gambling by post is almost incredibly upon the increase. In Middleburg and Flushing there are twelve huge betting firms. One person employs ninety people in his office, and has his own printing establishment, which is always glutted with work. Often £1000 is received by one firm in a single day--nearly all in small bets, and all from England. The post-offices of Dutch towns of the size of Middleburg or Flushing normally keep in stock stamps which will supply the needs of a population of 20,000 persons. Now, these two towns are compelled to keep enough to supply a population of 200,000--all for the “furtherance of the breeding and preservation,” etc., etc. Here is another significant fact which may possibly elucidate the recent and somewhat cryptic utterance, “The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton just as certainly as the battle of Spion Kop was lost upon the playing fields of Sandhurst.” The fact is this ...