The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-17

went Into a cOnnlptlon Tt ana dlun |
 know what ailed him until I noticed
 that every time he caught sight of the
 stablemans red flannel undershirt he'd
 get into a shiver. I chased the stable
 man out of the barn to see what effect
 his going would have, and the horse
 was soon all right again. l had to put
 the ban on red sweaters and under
 shirts and caps around my barn while
 l was handling him. He took his aver
 sion to red into his races. If there were
 g. lot of red colors on the backs of the
 jockeys riding the horses he went to the post with he'd kick up the devil at the
 barrier and try the best he knew how
 to run away. If, in such cases, the
 start would happen to be prompt, he'd
 jump out in front like a fire-engine dog and they'd never catch him-his boy would have trouble in pulling him up
 after the race, in fact. But, more of
 ten, he would run away before the
 start, and ruin his chances, owing to
 his fear of the red colors.
 "Another pretty good old rater that
 raced on the old Bay District track in California had a singular fondness for
 the smell of tobacco smoke, unless the smoker happens to get too near them
 when they're liable to snort and snufIle
 and give other strong evidence that
 they'd like to be rid of the smoker.
 This old two- miller, though, just natu-
 rally loved the smell of tobacco smoke
 any kind of tobacco smoke-pipe ci-
 gar. even the vicious cigarette. I found
 this out in peculiar sort of way. The
 old nag had won me three races, right
 off the spool, at distances ranging from
 a mile and a furlong to two miles.
 When he made his first win at sixty to
 one, I didn't know what to make of It,
 and hadn't bet dollar on him. At
 that, l was called into the stand and requested by the stewards to explain
 the old fellows complete reversal of i form-for previously he had been run ming like land crab shy few f1ippers,
 although in his day, he had been one of the top notchers among the handicap
 division. I couldn't explain anything
 to the stewards, and I told them so.
 The old horse had simply gone out and ] spread-eagled his field from flag-fall to | finish, and that's all there was about it. They called for the sheets and found that hadn't bet nickel on him,
 but, at that, I suppose they figured it that I'd done my betting in the pool rooms throughout the country for they had me under a sort of cloud for few days-until the old horse ran again over the same distance of ground The
 bookies, believing that there'd been nf In I 1,; l,ir ous race, took twenty to one liberties with him, and this time picked up few thousands on the old chap who hoped off and ran like a scared deer all the way, making his field look like pony zebras. That vindicated me, of course, and I was still further vindica- ted when he went out the next time, with fourteen pounds more lead under his saddle, and made one of the best Bay District fields resemble bunch of ClydesdaleS in a swamp. Then l put him into a selling stake, despite the fact that the handicappers gave him one hundred and thirty pounds for his to carry mile and a quarter. thought that he'd about be able to do the trick, anyhow, and intended to bet in him.
 T went into the old chaps box about twenty minutes before the boots and saddles call was due, and what I saw there put me into a rage the like of which I never experienced before or since One of my rubbers, black han I'd employed for years and always found faithful and perfectly on the lev | al 4lo oJ l i, a11. I,1z cloud upon cloud of the bummest cigar smoke you ever smelt in your life right into the nag's nostrils. The darky | didn't see me for minute in the semi | darkness of the stable, and I just stood | there and looked at the performance | wondering whether I'd shoot that Sen- egambian dead or kick him to death. | was amazed to note that the old horse, l far from rearing and kicking, actually | seemed to be enjoying the tobacco | smoke, while he inhaled through his nostrils with deep in-drawn breaths. | There was contented look in his eyes, and, if a horses countenance Is capa- ble of expressing happiness, then that ones did. Nevertheless, I was con- vinced that the darky was trying to queer the brute, and I jumped on him and gave him a few clips alongside the head that made him dizzy. He was trying to tell me something all the time, but I wouldn't listen to him until I had given him good pounding and accused him in a whole lot of cuesword languages of trying to give me the kinky- -dink. What he was saying, however, finally caught my ear, and I turned him loose and listened to what he had to say What he said sure did me up a heap. He told me that he had often noticed, in fooling around the old horse when he had ci- gar in his face, how much the animal seemed to relish the smell of the smoke, and that he had reached the conclusion by some circuitous sort of darky req soning, that the tobacco smoke was just about what the old rater needed in his business. He said that he had blown the smoke of a whole two-fer ci- gar right into the horses nostrils on the day that the old chap had jumped out and beat his field at sixty to one, and that he had repeated the performance on the two other occasions on which the horse had won away off by himself It all seemed so incredible that I could barely believe the darky's story, but he was so earnest about it that he finally