Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-13
! VICTlM OF lNGRATtTUDE

! The following is extract from let
| ter recently received from a newspaper
man. formerly well known in Washington,
| who Is now attached to the staff of a Lon
| don morning newspaper:
| THE other night relic on four feet was
| pointed out to me. 1 came out Of one OF
| the music halls before the performance was
| over. L saw the figure of a man 1 knew
| standing close to the curb. He had his
| hands rammed into his trousers pockets
| Drawn up close to the curb was a nag at
| tached to q not particularly smart appear
| ing cab. The driver of the cab was invis-
ibie-regaing himself In some nearby pub.
| probably. l was rather puzzled to see this
man 1 knew-he came over heIs with Sloan
to play Sloan's mounts. and: needless to
say, he is good many thousand pounds to
the good-standing there by the curb APP
parently looking over the cab nag and pas
sively acting like a man in a trance. As
was about to go up to speak to him he
pulled his hands out of his pockets and
stroked the cab horses nose | concluded
Il at the turfman had dined pretty well,
1t seemed such queer performance.
Thinking of adopting that old skate for
pet?' l said. walking up to him.
He wheeled about and recognized me.
He looked as solemn owl.
g Not just that he replied but this old
horse is an American, and therefore a
friend of mine. Couldn't help but stop and
say how" to him.
Abandon that tack said I. Dye ex-
pect me to believe that you can tell the DIFF
ference between American and English
plugs hNched to London cabs? What eel
ebration have | missed that you've been at
tending?'
Il can tell this one though. all right all
right he answered, quite seriously. This
is one l knew. This is one I'm sore over
This is one-say, what dye think of this
horse, anyhow, from cursory inspection
OF him?
Il looked at the old cab horse without
much curiosity. / felt quite certain that
the un-American mixed drinks OF London
had gone to my friends head.
oh. a tired.ioohing old cab nag said
7, off-hand Did you ever see a Londoa cab
horse that didn't look weary?
Il was sizing the horse up 1 spoke, and
something struck me about him.
But l concluded. me seems to have
pretty small feet for This business. Come
to look him over closer, ca seems to have
some lines. too. Probably a cold strain of
thoroughbred in him, away back
Well if you'd call Rayon dor thor
oughbred, then this one has got 1t. Rayon
dor was his pa
I'm not up very we'll on turf records. but
I did know that Ray0n dor was great
race horse.
well. what of ito SAID l. What's this
nag doing in cab harness, then?
That's what I'd like to know, he replied.
| Say, how dye think this one would look
with q double wreath OF roses d|OuIu ms
| neck? I've seen him With the wreaths on.
Also you have drea:nt,' said |, incred-
| ulously.
| II have seen some of the most beautiful
| of our American women stroke his head
| and-well, yes. kiss his nose. I've seen this
| one prance with all the naughty, arrogant
| pride of the charger We read about when
| we were kids that carried Richard the
| Lion-Hearted through the Holy Land. I've
| seen this old geiding eat sugar humps from
| the pretty hands of princesses.
And you always woke up after seeing
| these things? said /, still inCredulOusly.
1--we heard the savagely eXultant
| voices of tens of thousands of American
men and women unite in one huge ele-
| mental roar of acclaim over the very sight
| of this hOrSe-thiS poor, tired old dog with
| his head bowed down in misery and hui
| initiation. | wonder if now he ever dreams
| of the days when master horsemen be-
strobe him, when he made the greatest
raCehorSeS of his generation look like cat
! tie from the ranges, wnen he spread-eagled
and beat fields of mighty giants that had
| never been beaten-eVer dreams. for in
| stance, of that great day in his life at
Monmouth Park, when he leaped out and
| broke the worlds record-that stands to-
| day, and that may stand for hundred
| years. forever, for that matter-for mile
| and quarter? Dye think the poor old
| hound ever Dreams?
| Not in such fiowery vein as you do,
| I'll be bound l said. Yet L began to think
! / knew what he was driving at, although
| dlun I say anything.
| " Now he is a night-liner of the night
| liners, and 1t is his task to drag a shabby
| cab filled with the drunken youth of the
| music halls around London went on the
| turfman. The blackgUards howl to the
DrutiSh-faced driver to whip him up, and
| he gets the long lash around his ears-this
| weary old boy that used to bitterly resent
! the slightest accidental flick of his
jockeys whip
What are you driving at. anyhow said
! l finally, just for the sake of asking the
| question. He has been a racehorse, then
| a cast-Od?'
| whole history of the racing game was the
| reply. This horse is Banquet, the nobest
| racing brute of his era
| We'll. that was something to give chap
| a twnge, for a fact.
| And his being in a cab-harness?
| oh, a gelding, and therefore of no
| further profit when he grew too old and
| stiff to race said the turfman, somewhat
bitterly. After winning literally hundreds
| OF thousands of dollars for his owner, the
| poor old duffer couldn't have been turned
| out to Craze and kick up his heels in a
| sunny American meadow. His owner, find
| ing Banquet's speed departed and unfit for
| a second campaign on the English turf after
| a grueling racing campaign in America,
| sells him at auction to Il cab-drver for a
| quarter Of a handful of dirty soveregns
| put 1t to you square: Do you marvel
| that the man who did this thing has never
| had days luck since he did it?
! No, don't said /, with entire frank
| ness.
| Then the music hall performance was
| over, the driver of the cab came running
| out of the nearby pub, a couple of bolster
| Gus, e-parts-drunken youths stepped
| into the cab the driver mounted his seat
| pulled his whip and gave the horse a
vicious cut on the neck with the cracker of
| the lash, and Banquet shook himself to-
gether from his dreams and YEARLY lum-
! bered away into the darkness. My friend
| the turfman looked after the departing rig
| as long it was in sight
| " Not days luck since he did that dirty
| jobr L heard him mutter in his throat"