The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-12
ADVERSELY TEACHES
TOD SLOAN LESSON
The Once Famous Jockey Is
Now Meek and Quite
Civil


deal of sympathy for Sloan in this coun-s
try just now. Even the hundreds of rae
ing folk who years ago became his most
bitter enemies because of the insolence of
his department, on and Off the race track.
have faced about and now call them
selves his friends.
1t is well known fact that Sloan is
hard up and needs the $4,000 the highest
court of the French republic declares he
is entitled to. Sloan is hard up because
he has always been recklessly liberal with
his money.
Spent Money Freely
He has scattered about with generous
hand the vast sums he earned by riding
when things were coming his way, and not
all of this money has found its way into
the pockets of the deadbeats and loafers
who invariably make up successful
has been worthily distributed. Little of
this Is known, because Sloan was never
boaster. There is lot that is good in
this quaint little person who supports the
fully developed head of six-foot man
with the physique of a boy.
If Sloans manner was not all it should
was not, perhaps, altogether to blame.
His early environment was not calculated
to develop in him a sense of delicacy such
a one I might eKpeSs 20 find IN the scion
other chance is given him he promises to
deport himself becoming1y. There will
be no more Hotel Cecil episodes. no more
smashing of heads of walters with bottles.
Adversity has taught Sloan lesson His
keen, active brain has not been idle these
three or four years. even if he has not,
If the Jockey Club of England will init.
mate, through its Racing Calendar, that
he may, if he likes, ride in Great Britain
Sloan will. without delay, promise that he
will not bother Englishmen again. He viii
gladly agree to stick strictly to this coun-
try 1t is said that a word from James r.
Keene would have set Sloan STRAIGHT with
the British Jockey club a year ago, but
Mr.. Keene apparently has not seen his
way clear to say that word
If it is true that Sloan was barred from
English tracks because of his ungraeeful
personality, his punishment has been all
out of proportion to his crime. If the Brit
fsf Jockey club had evidence that heswas
pulling horses 1T should have said so long
ago. This star chamber business in horse
racing would have been out of place an the
time of the first Charles Stuart
1t is well enough for racing officials to
keep their counsel while they are running
down turf crook but directly they nail
their man 1t is up to them to say what
they are acting on. Banishment for life
would not be severe punishment for Sloan
If proof had been at hand of his having
so much as pulled one horse. But fine
OF $150,0o0 is a tremendous price to pay
for having an Objectionable personality.
No one will deny that his indefinite sus-
pension has cost Sloan all of that sum- Ac-
cording to the most conservative esti-
uidteS lie was earning SoU,UUU a year Wfen
the Jockey Club of Great Britain fntf-
mated that his room was preferable to his
company. Hundreds of men in this coun-
try make $4,000 a year because of their
objectionable personalities.
Ii Sloan were disposed to discuss the
personalities of some of the stewards of
the English Jockey club he would, no
doubt, say that he had found as much to
object to in them as they found in him.
English gentlemen are not always gra-
clous and graceful in their attitude to-
ward outianderS. Stssssst-
! 1t has been said in England that if
Sloan had the manners Of Danny Maher
| he would today be the most successful and
popular jockey in Great Britain The per-
son who said this probably knew what he
was about. 1t was S1oan's misfortune
perhaps, that Jack Joyner, a Southern
trainer of the old school, did not have
charge OF his apprenticeship.
'sknock" American Jockeys
Discriminating American turf followers
/ haven't the greatest faith in the industri-
ously advertised fairness of the bosses of
! the British Jockey club. When lights of
the turf like Lord Durham interpolate in
gimcrack dinner speeches such Obserya-
| tons as too many of these tricky Yam
| KEGS have come over here to corrupt hon
| est British lads" how can anyone take
4 them seriously?
The notion that a Yankee or a Jockey
from any other country could teach an
accomplished English rider anything about
stopplng fayorltes, or riding horses in
\
! thought of for a moment Sloans over
| weening' skill as horseman had as much
to do with his undoingg g. as did his objec-
tionable personality. There are no more
| self sufficient people than the British, and
| 1t gals them to the quick when an out
| lander drops among them and shows them
| how little they know of a thing in which
| they imagine they long ago attained per-
/ fection. +
The way Sloan put it on the star Eng
| lish jockeys was shameful. He might
| have lasted longer if he had been a trf1e
| less contemptuouS in his treatment Of his,
honest but inferior rivals, but sooner cor
| later he would have come to grief. His
/ doom was written directly his pre- -emi-
nence in his calling became apparent
/ Sloan has not acquired fat He has
/ gained hardly five pounds since he rode
his last race, and by judicious exercise he
| has kept the perfect condition he was al
ways in when he rode regularly
| If he gets another chance, Sloan saws he
/ viii set the meanest stable boy an example
in early rising and industry by busting
| out before daybreak and exercising his
set in whatever stable he may elect to
join; that he will shun the hotels of the
| sensitively rich and mighty, that he win
forSwear automobiles, white duck
| breeches and spats; that he will effaee
| himself until no one will suspect that he Is
about and that he will even give llp long
black cigars, if that sacrifice is demanded
1 of him.