Year: 1868

orecons comnanv will be very hard hit, for long be
fore the race it was said that more money had beer
laid AGAINST Blue Gown than could be paid II he won
Ordinarily when the favOrite Is beaten the DoOk
makers win largely, but it happens this year tha
tbo nublio has taken fancy to back Blue Gown fo
great deal of money. The Ring was nothing loti
to take all it could get Men who were cautiou
about laying against Lady Elizabeth gave the odd
recklessIy against horse whom not even his owner
believed in. If, could you really care which of tive
sets Of blackegs win or lose you may have satisfac
ton in thinking that the knowing ones to come
to grief on this sunny day.


But unless yon want to try your maiden hand
against these accomplished gamblers, we may as well
got on other ground. Ground where very likely your
pocket may be picked but not by man who asks
you to be party to the transaction. When the race
was over a single van proved sufficient TO carry Oh
the rOgues whom the police had selzed-a strone
testimony either to the virtue of the ragged crowd
or TO the extreme interest of the police In the race
The men with red neck-ties were permitted to 60
back 10 town in their own way. AS it is after II
O'Clock we are in good time to see the picnic
dinners for which the Derby has a reputa-
ton From game pies and champagne in the
drags down to the section of dirty cOcoanut III the
mouths of countless ragged imps here every vare-
ty of al escO lunch For those who brought no pro-





like those have seen at a campmeeting i'll Marthas
Vineyard. more years ago than care to remember
Perhaps the gipses would give you a dinner in those
curious tents shaped like the quarter of an orange
but all the gpses busy at Aunt Sally one OF the
few relics of the time-honored British Constitution
which the destroying hand of Mr.. Disraei has left
untouched triple line of canvas screens stretches
certainly more than half-a-mie either side OF the
course and on the hill On the inner side are strange
grOwths of cOcoanuts prOpped each on a pole
set in a basket of earth. These are at
once targets and prizes, the weapons are
peeled blets of wood like polcemans baton, and
if you bring down a c0coanut it is yours. At rough
estimate 500 rustic BritOns were engaged in this ad-
mirable sport Right in the middle of the course are
dozen rings of men. You may take your choice of
Punch, sparring match or performance of the
Davenport trick in daylight and without any cabinet
"a cleverer thing than those renowned imposteTs
used to perform in Cooper Institute. The Cheap
Jack is herepeThaps his great prorat painter made
an early study of him on thsvery spot Even into this
profession has innovation made its way and Womens
Rights have got themselves acknowledged. A
woman plies this curious trade, to Cs great delight
who SAYS IL is something quite and appears to
think she has made one step toward the franchise
and a seat in Parliament Certainly she has the
largest crowd about her. but is sadly wanting in the
oily persuasion which is the chief stock in trade of
this enterprisng adventurer. Do not ask me to 60
through the catalogue of small knaveries which
thrive on such day this, and which of its
attractions tn all classes of people. Here are men
who never show themselves by daylight on any other
day in the year. The population of Westminster
has migrated in a body to EPSON Downs.
Here, as there, the best and the worst
richest and poorest law-maker and law breaker,
have camped down side by side exactly they live
side by side under the shadow of the Victoria Tower
and by the green slopes of St. Jamess Park. And it
is more than Westminster. 1t is London turned out
of doors for day. Mayfair and Belgravia Shore
ditch and Whitechapel at the picnic the hdue
noblesse of GrOsvenor-square, like the patrician of
Rome opening his domestic life to public gaze. All
the world has contributed to this showman's box;
pull the slide and choose what figures you fancy
most


Seen thus in detail the duty is wearisome and
even painful than amusing 1t is best at a distance
and from the roof of the Grand Stand there is view
varied and picturesque enough to account in some
measure for thoenthusiasm of the English over their
great holiday. In spendor of costume there is moth


ing to compare with the great at LOngeham2s,
near Paris where the freshest French costumes are
srrayed in masses of variegated color. Far more
impressive than everything else is that broad river
s0na the inclosure or
the cOurse flows not in a single stream but curves
everywhere into eddies, and myriad channels from
themselves aud are lost every minute 1t is change
ful as lippling brook but flows sluggish as cooling
lava. At this great hight you do not feel the want
of bright faces and brilliant dress. The dull stare OF
the lower class British face ceases to repel YOU Inc
sure kfect of mass and Of multitude begins to tell
u is not grand, but it is great. So much that Is
mean has disappeared that you can enjoy the land
scape the blue sky the wind coming fresh from over
tbeSurrey Downs Never mind why the half million of
people came They there to cheat and be cheated
to eat and drink, to see which of twenty horses can
get first past winning post, and there is no other
question throughout England which men on day
will endure TO hear discussed In the broad avenue
Of the Paris Exposition, which was assigned to
England TO fill with whatever she had best to show
the world the greatest space was given to racing
pate to prizes from Ascot and Newmarket, cum
ninely wrought in silver and gold. They were not
the best things England sent, but her own repre-
sentatves thought them the best gave them the place
~ honor and they were in fact the best symbols Of
the ruling passion of the hour. And it will be many
a wear before the Derby, with all its vulgarty its
stupendous swindng, and its puere purpose, ceases
70 be the great national festival of England.


Imay as well say here that this letter will have the
part of Hamlet left out 1t is not written to racing
men, and though, suppose there must be something
about horses, and even about betting 1t viii not oe
professional, nor of profit to the professional Ike
horses, detest racing, and think the meanest OF
men is he who runs and ruins horses for gambling
purposes The pretext that the turf iskept up to i'm
prove the breed of horses has been abandoned.
1t is admitted that instead OF being
improved they are cruelty injured by being run at
two years old If the practice goes on, there will by
and-by be nothing left to breed from, and England
must 20 abroad for its horses 1t is urged that the
two-year races shall be given up, but they will not
be while they can be made profitable The press be-