The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-29

for sale by LIPPMAN BROS. AND
force of jockey. A boy may lose a
pound of weight in a hard race"
In "a Jockey School.
When a boy enters a jockey school he
shuts the world behind him, like a nun
that walls herself within a convent All
energy of body and soul is consecrated to
his craft. To him life means the clank
j of the bride, the hoof-thud. the smell of
straw, and the bookmaker's cry. He
| never learns anything unrelated to this
| life. OF dozen stable-boys l found only
two that could name the governors of
! their respective states. Most of them be-
lieved Roosevelt 10 be simply a Rough
Rider, and knew him as Teddy Only
one could tell me his present office.
| What they do develop is a savage grit
that lets them nudge death Familiarity
| with smiling face, a forearm and leg of
flexible steel, and wits unnaturally keen
on single line. And also, that pitiful
| legacy of the veteran trainer-crabbed
age of mind behind a baby face You
have the living picture of it all in four
teen-year-old Johnny Reiff, who earns in
| year more than a dozen college profess
| sors.
The early training of a jockey is
| thorough, severe and relentless The boys
sleep in a stable loft over the horses.
Summer and winter they are awakened at
daybreak by a groom pounding on the
boards. They jump into their clothes,
shivering in the early mornings chill, and
hurry to a pump, where a douse of cold
water sweeps away the cobwebs of sleep.
! Then to the horses, and for two hours
each boy exercises his string string
consists of two horses, and exercising
means walking them about the track I'M
| til they are agreeably warm. After break
! fast-and the food at a jockey school is of
the most nourishing sort-the youngsters
| exercise another string and employ an
! hour or more In doing chores. The after
noon they spend at the track, and by s
/ o'clock in the evening they must be abed.
/ Plenty of time is allowed to them for
recreation. The trainers encourage -he
| boys in such sports as swimming, run
ming and ball playing. By constant
| practice of open-air diversions, Tod Sloan
has maintained his excellent condition.
| To this day he will leap a five-foot fence
rather than go through the gate. Marbles
| is the favorite game of the stable boys.
| After winning a twenty-five thousand
! dollar race at Manchester last year, john
| ny Reiff was found deeply interested
playing marbles while Lord Roseberry
| was waiting outside the paddock to con-
| graduate him.
THE life of the embryo jockey is full
| of contrast. Until a boy shows signs of
! a great talent he is liable to rough
| treatment for any mistake or disobe-
] dience He learns to dread the trainers
| balestick 1t is on record that Ludden, an
| English boy, was killed through the cru
| city of his master On the other hand,
| as soon as the apprentice displays prom
| Use he is nurtured and tended just as
scrupulously as the colt of high degree.
TRAINERS are particularly anxious that
the boys go to church every Sunday. one
of them told me, with flicker of pro-
| family. that he had been hunting two days
for Quaker meeting house, as ne had
lust indentured a Quaker boy from
| Pennsylvania poor house.
TOD Sloan has said that out of fifty
| bows that lead the elephant to water, two
get into the circus, and he makes the
! same average of boys who reach the
distinction of exercising a horse under
! the saddle This is the second step in
| the school; and the majority of appren-
! tices. after three years, attain to it only
To learn that they have taken on too
much weight ever to be jockeys. Little
| wonder. then that such unfortunate
Youths. sickened at soul, dribble out
| CHEAP existence as 'tOuts,' hostlers ana
vagabons. You can pick them out IN
sporting purlieus-wan-faced, stunted mis-
fits of men. If boy has not attained
10 the second step before his sixteenth
wear. and, while ne is under seventy-hve
pounds in weight, his future is behlnd
him.
The Jockeys PeriIs.
"As illustrating the hazardous life of
Jockey, / need only point out that IN the
season OF 1899 five boys were killed out
right both arms of another lad were oroK-
en-. and nineteen jockeys endured injuries
such as fractured wrists, ribs and ankles
3. eft is peculiar i'm horse racing, too, that
so utterly absorbed in the sport do all
patrons become, whether multi-millionaire
owners of the cheapest OF touts' that
modtalities are passed over WIEN brleIest
mention in the newspapers. Inc breaking
of a Jockeys neck means nothing. HIS
Mace can be easily filed. Far more dis
tressing to a racing man is an accident
TO a crack S-yeaT-old, or the disquallfy-
ing of a winner
"A newspaper dispatch from NashNlhe,
dated Nov To- 1885, reads Jockey Del
Shorthand rode his last race to-day. Mount
ed on Red Monk. he was knocked OFT in
iostle in the mile event, and two horses
nassea over him. lie was picked up with
n fractured skull and internal injuries,
and died at Z o'clock That is all. The
column account hen goes on to say that
the day was cloudy and the track sort.
John Boone was very tired horse after
winning the opening dash by neck from
Hairpin.' Another dispatch from New
Orleans mentions that a Jockey fell from
his horse. remounted and won she race
but when he walked to the paddock some
one discovered that two of his ribs were
broken. Later on he died from internal
hemorrhoge.
zone would think that human beings
sharing common peril OF death every
day could feel only a generous consider
alton for one another like soldiers IN
bayonet charge. But the opposite Is true
OF Jockeys With sentiment chilled ana
hearts that never tap an extra beat, these
fellows often strive in cold blood TO
main a comrade for life. There IL one
Jockey riding this season with the record
OF having killed three boys on the track. ,
when Winnie O'Connor began riding
al New orleans last year he came In
from the first race crying bitterly that
ne could easily have won ~ a well-known
Jockey had not fouled him. The trick that
C. used is one common among jock