The San Francisco call., 1898-03-19
TURF SCANDALS
 MIGHT BE PREVENTED.
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If, when the Legislature next convenes, instead of drafting bills tending to the restriction of racing it would draw up a law, making 1t felony Tor any bookmaker's employe to offer a jockey a stated sum of money as an lh- centive to pull a horse starting In a race, it would be one step toward the purlflca- tion of the racing game
 Racing associations make hundreds or thousands of dollars, but to their miserly, grasping policy is indirectly due half ot the corruption existing on racecourses Now and then some racing organization will appoint a man whose duty It IS 10 keep strict watch on the jockeys; to see that inducements are not held out to them to go wrong. As general rule' this worthy is generally put next to himself" and his main object is to take advantage of position, and, IT a. Job in the race does exist, to get aboard the live one.
 One man to watch a score of jockeysi The most precocfous lot of youths wear ing shoe leather-what utter nonsense. Why do not these associauons, if they are sincere in their efforts to keep the sport in a healthy condition, not appoInt say, six inspectors, whose duty 1t would be to keep an eye on suspected riders and ana slippery boollmakers? Not only on the track, but at night, and report to the board of stewards, the names of those who frequent the underground dens ot
  bankers clerk or merchants s cashier can frequent these resorts and hold his posi- tion, and the rider who does should be placed on the doubtful list. An insight into the history or nearly every disgraced rider will show that his downfall was due to the visiting of these sort of joints, the 'friends' they call Tor, ana the m evitabie proposition 10 do little buSl- ness" While perfectos and small bots come to the rider in profusion while in the zenith O. his fame, this same swell
 
 several inches with highly scented bou- Quets of f1attery would not give him 5-cent cigar or match to light IL with, when once he stands disbarred by official ruling for fraud.
 When a poor laborer out of employ ment with a family in a starving condi- tion, domiciled in some old hovel, who steals a sack of flour or Sugar-cured ham to relieve their condition is arrest ed, the tender-hearted Judge on the bench usually lets him off with a life sentence If a bank cashier gets away with a cool hundred thousand his influential friends tell the jury his pipe was too strong, and he is let down with couple Of years. But when one of these polished highway men of the betting ring get hold of a dead one' and take peoples money, knowing full well they are simply rob ping them when they do it, the tlir~ is passed over lightly by racing stewards. In nearly every instance where scandal has been attached to the name of some particular jockey. no seeming effort has been made to connect a layer of odds with the job On the other hand, 1t would look as though the officials endeavored to shield these worthieS-
 Anent the recent suspension of Jockeys Spencer and Jones, their friends are mak- ing all sorts of excuses for their peculiar exhibitions. To a close observer Spencer has furnished some very coarse looking saddle work two of the most glaring cases being the rides he put up on Don Fulano and George Miller The latter was a top-heavy favorite in six-furlong