The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-11-27
THE CANON'S
CESAREWITCH

| the TURF. uuu tine general impression III
wcll-iniormed circles WAS that he had
! now pretty well run TO the end of his
financial tether lie had started life
with Il large estate; and, when he first
| went upon the turf, had lavished huge
| sums in forming for himself an eXteu-
| Sive and expensive stud. But though
he purchased animals oil the finest pedi-
| grcc. and bred many youngsters of eNcep-
| tiounl strain, his successes were not at
all proportiOnatc 30 his outlay: in fact
| scarcely u season passed ut the end of
! which he did not find himself heavily out
| of pocket. Once twice, certainly, his
horses had done great things. 1t may he
remembered how his famous colt, The
| Bishop, won the Derby, starting at Il
| longish price; and how his ,filly, Sister
| Mary Martha, Il few years later, upset all
| calculations i'm the One Thousand. But
these We're almost his only conspicuous
| successes. His other victories were
| scored in comparatively minor events,
and were far from numbering even in
| those The result was that the baro.
net-at the time of which we write-was
| actually lowering on the verge of bank
| ruptcy. His town house had been sold,
| his county estates mortgaged to the hilt,
and he himself was compG He'd to retire
| into economical seclusion at his Wilt
shire seat-which he had in vain tried to
| let and where he lived in one wing of
the house, with two or three servants,
leaving the rest of the mansion to the
bats, rats and cockroaches.
Only one animal now remained to him
of all his numerous stud. This was the
famous mare, Sister Mary Martha, whom
he still refused to sell, and whom he took
down with him into Wiltshire She was
understood to he in foal to the Bishop.
And Sir John cherished lingering hope
that her offspring might turn out to be
flyer and in some degree help to recoup
him 70" his many ruinous losses. His
friends said that he was II fool to refuse
81, eco for the mare, rs he had actually
done; and some of them pressed him to
reconsider his determination. Sir John
however, remained obstinate. He never
did pay much attention to advice 1t
was not his way. lie valued himself
upon his own level headed 'cutenesS too
much for that. And he was 'cute-not
Il doubt of it. Ii anthing. perhaps, he
was too cute, for over 'cuteness fire.
quently defeats itself by always pursuing,
tortuous paths; whereas it often happens
that the straightest road is the one that
pays the best to follow. Many such men
are to be met with; men so addicted to
cunning that the thing becomes IL mania
with them. This it had practically done
with Sir John. 1t gave him more pleas
ure to land $40 600 by judicious iockeying
than 500, 900 by fair and legitimate meth
DDS And no doubt this passion of his
for sharp practice mad rs much as any
thing else to do with his failure upon the
turf. - -.
With the above weakness was linked, in
his case, IL strong element OF superstition
Probably most gamblers have that quality
more or less clearly developed in them,
az in
While no material methods of com pass.
ing his shady objects were neglected by
him. he paid the greatest heed to inmate
rial influences dreams, presentiments.
omehs and such like; so much so as
frequently to arouse the open ridicule Of /
his practical associates But tile baronet
pursued his way, as impervious to their !
ridicule as he was deaf to their advice.
No amount of experience could teach him
wisdom. Even when he stood on tho
verge of bankruptcy he still chung to the
belief that it only needed Il little more
perseverance in his favored method to
insure him ultimate success; and that
after Il steady course OF failure through
twenty years
When Sister Mary Martha had been
down at her owners Wiltsbirc's stables
FOR IL few months the expected foal ar
rived. II was in the midst of surround.
ings by no means adequate to his strain
and pedigree that this distinguished colt I
foal was ushered into Il troublesome eXis-
tence. The greater portion of the stables |
had been shut up and Sir John had only
one groom AN old family servant-upon
the premises. The baronct himself took
an active share in Looking after the one
or two horses that he kept there and he,
his groom, his local vet, from Salisbury,
Nfort Lu-
when her fonl was born. The event Great
ed no sensation in the ncighborhood.
The pumpkins in that out of the world
place knew little. and cared less, about
turf intelligence. TO them the circum-
stances that son had been born to The
Bishop and Sister Mary Martha was
without Importance. If Tummas Nodes
white sow had farrowed IL dozen or Bill
Andrews notified hen had Matched out II
setting of fifteen. it would have made
more stir in the villlge. Amid such an
appreciative surroundings was The Can
on toalcd.
This name tby which Sir John dcsigna
ted him within a few hours of his biruh)
was obviously appropriate. But it was
not merely the appropriateness OF the
designation that had induced his owner
u style him thus Allusion has been made
10 the superstitjous sentiment inSirJohn's
character. TO this. more than to any
thing else, The Cannon owed his name.
The extraordinary and wonderful luck
which had attended Sir John In Che mat
ter OF the Bishop-'rhc story of whose
Derby vctorv,is too well known To need
repettion}.had aroused in Sir John sort
of tliud faith in ecclesiastical nomencla.
ture
The baronet's friends, who had urged
him to accept tile offer of - 600 for