The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-01-19
THE JOCKEYS CHRISTMAS,

queer looking sort OF lad,
His clothes hangin' round him in tat
tiers, a face that was old like and
sad:
He hadn't brother or sister, and
knew about horses, he said.
/ Twas somewhere along in December,
the racing was over and done,
The boys were a-licling their heels
up and rolling around in the sun,
With nothing to do in the morning and
nothing to do at night,
The horses all eating their heads off
and not stake winner in sight.
At first / confess / was tempted to
turn him away from the door,
But Just at that moment he tainted,
and fell in heap or the floor;
Then / knew right away he was starv-
ing and lifting him up, the poor
| just took him in and / fed him, and
and now / thank God that | did.
He worked round the stables all win
ter, and soon I found out he could
ride;
al
mans and strong as a steel spring
beside;
Had seat an archer might envy, and
all Murphy's knowledge of pace,
And knew every horse in the stables,
but best of them all he loved
Grace.
BY Gabriel, out of Brown Nelly, the
mare was the pride of my string;
Sweet tempered she was as kitten.
and swift as bird on the wing:
As yet she had not faced the starter,
but somehow | fancied that she,
With little Jim perched in the saddle,
might yet be the making of me.
We worked her that spring on the
quiet, and tried her one day at a
mile;
At one-forty fat stopped the watches;
twas done in the handiest style.
Shell do for the Oaks, jim | whis-
pered, and Jim answered back,
"Ain't she sweet?
There was never any thing like her;
they'll find here a hard one to
beat"
entered her clear up the circuit IN all
of the stakes | could find;
/ said she should make me or break
me, yet felt / was going it blind,
But Jim only laughed at my fancies,
She'll make but not break you,
he said:
And Grace looking out from the stable
kept nodding and nodding her
head.
The summer came on in its splendor:
the day for the Oaks was at hand,
The field that was carded, grand one,
the pride and the pick of the land.
In the pools she was selling for fifty,
the fayorite being Belle Stone,
And | was the sucker a-buying the
tickets on Grace all alone.
just five hundred dollars i wagered
against thirteen thousand that
Grace
Would be the first in at the finish;
/ knew she was ready TO race.
Then told little Jim how to ride her:
''Get off well and give her her
head
Never fear" he said, ''if we're beaten,
both | and the mare will be dead"
With fourteen that danced round the
starter, the field was large one,
and yet
The mare didn't seem the least ner-
vous showed no disposition to fret,
And Jim in his dingy old jacket-Iny
colors were purple and white
Seemed able to hold and control her
with touch that was thistle-down
light.
They're Off" was the cry from the
watchers. Belle Stones in the
Lead mo, it's Grace"
She'll come back 10 her field"
no she will not" "She never'll
live at that pace"
BY the time they'd gone the first quar-
ter, my mare was ten lengths to
the good,
And streaking away like rabbit
scared out Of the heart Of the
wood.
Twas in vain that the whip cracked
behind, vain was the touch of the
steel,
With nostrils blood red and name fly
ing, my Grace was leading the
reel.
Jim eased her bit the last quarter,
and, turning, he looked for Belle
Stone,
Who led all the rest at the eighth pole,
but my mare just finished alone.
Unbeaten she went through the sea
son, the pet of the public, and Jim
Was the jock that the plungers all
followed-they seemed TO cotton
to him.
Success made no change in his habits;
he gave me his earnings to keep,
And slept ev'ry night at the stables
the place where all jockeys should
sleep.
We wintered at Mobile that season,
and often as twilight would fall,
We'd sit at the doorway together and
list for the mocking-bird's call.
Watch the moonlight flooding the sta
bles, the shadows that danced on
the green