Show THE FIFE debby bebby may DAY A californian AT TIIE tite RACES naces LONDON may for nearly a century the derby day has been the day of days in merry old england it is the isthmian games of greece revived in this insular realm no race so throng edno day so longed for no gathering C multitude of such vast proportions as meet and throng and crowd together on dery derby day how liow happy we were as americans to be permitted m bitted to visit this mighty gat gathering gathered herin herid 9 and view this wondrous show the major malor includes the minor saith lord coke and he who has seen windsor castle has seen all the great norman castles of the world and he who has witnessed the derby has seen all other races crowds and multitudes yesterday amay imay we visited the derby the day was as bright as though made for the sport and the smooth furze of epsom downs nestled like velvet beneath your feet the derby takes place some twenty four miles in a southerly direction from london and the road to and from the race is as much a show as the race itself again as an american I 1 could not well understand why so great an excitement was gotten up about a horse race which is a little oft ott off color in many r places laces in america but it is only 01 ily lly necessary to see the pageant to understand der stand it at once it occurs at the opening of spring when the weather is sure to be fine on tile the last wednesday of may and after a long wet winter and a hurried spring london loudon has chosen the derby for its grandest picnic pic nic hence it it is not simply a horse race it is the mammoth mayday may day the tit titanic arl ari to sport the mastodon revel the leviathan picnic plenie pic pie nic of the greatest metropolis of the world the four million people of london cheer themselves through a long wet winter and spring during which not a man mail eva ever dr steps out rain or shine without the perennial and omnipresent london umbrella with joyous anticipations of the derby and when tile the last wednesday of may arrives the whole people horse foot dragoons four wheelers two wheelers men women and children are off for epsom downs every possible vehicle drawn by every possible animal crowd to the derby and no crowd on earth equals the gathering of the clans again it is a rule that the horse for the derby must be registered for the race before he is six months old and his entrance fee paid and so a great multitude of colts are entered that never run and a large stake is thus accumulated before the race for instance there were some two years and a half ago one hundred and ninety one horses entered for the derby of 1872 this one each horse home had fifty sovereigns paid in for his entrance fee tee making in all nine thousand five hundred and fifty sovereigns equal to forty seven thousand seven hundred and nitty fitly dollars in american gold add to this additional fees and stakes incident to the contest and you have a stake worthy of himself myself hi of the great number entered as above only twenty five started and made therace today the track too is different from ours the ho horses ms s do not start and stop at the same point and on a round and level track according to our american rule but rather run upon a horseshoe horse shoe line starting starling away out ott a quarter of a mile mlle from the judges stand and after going up grade and down over a course covered with grass and averone hundred feet wide they turn what is caled coiner and for half a mile they come thundering away straight as an arrow to the judges stand and the outcome along this half mile the crowd is something wonderful the grand stand I 1 at a guinea a head was thronged thron ged with thousands here was the duke or of edinburgh and prince arthur sons to the queen the duke of cambridge cousin to the queen and commander command er in chief and many nobles and dignitaries of the land from prom the grand stand towards corner for a half mile being the homestretch on both sides aldes of the course were tens of thou sands while in the centre of the horseshoe on what is called the hill were tens of thousands more and all over the grounds were canvas booths whitening the grassy lawn and dotting the landscape like creamy islands in an emerald sea it is estimated that about half a million persons were on the ground but to I 1 our muttons buttons mut tons 11 I 1 am describing the grounds before getting to the course and we must revert to the trip to epsom it is currently said that no one ever sees the first carriage ti t epsom for look as early as you may and you only see a stream of travelers whose avant courrier started long before at six four one inthe in the morning 1 t streaming thousands were on the way and in the early sunlight the streets of london were gay with horses carriages and cavalcades decorated with blue and gauzy ribbons festoons fes banners that said to the beholder we are off for the Der derbal byli byll and from regent circus to epsom downs one everlasting nood food of travelers trotted cantered crowded forth for the race we rode to victoria station took the cars which ran alongside of the road and gave us ua all the fun and sights without the dust and heat of the t trip rip had our carriage engaged beforehand fb rhan meet us at the Epsom Station jumped in and rode a half mile in the vast innumerable caravan that moved along to fill the epsom downs took station close to the trac track opposite the grand stand where our friends the dukes nukes princes nobles etc had arranged themselves nor ron our personal satisfaction and here as a 11 tr trysting yating place we debouched debauched debou ched about the grounds at will havlu havin having 0 secured a rendezvous we sallied fo forth rth and of all the in the world this was the greatest let me tell your fortune sweet ladies said a gypsy evidently from cork to my rife wife who sat beside me yah yahl yah yahl yahl yali I 1 gal ill meet you in the mornings morn sang a band of ebony minstrels ono one pone hone penny for a throw at aunt sallie said an urchin as he set up a scarecrow scare crow woman dressed in illuminated calico on a shaky pole only a penny for the show cried out a man who had 18 canary birds two cats and two white mice who boxed and shot and kissed and hauled each other around in mimic wagons etc etc of all the carnivals babes and rows that ever were conceived or of this was the worst the atlanta club of now new york who are here to row a match against the london club had a carriage nearby near by us and all about were many most agreeable people but soon the race came off cremorne won the day dayd owned gowned by mr saville sire parmesan dam bouche trainer gilbert rider maidment colors yellow cap scarlet there it is set down as in a book lord boylston ran rumfle ruffle lord falmouth patriarch I 1 lord Ag elsford 11 Vander decken deeken lord falmouth 11 queens messenger third in the race baron rothschild last years winner laburnum lord wilton wenlock I 1 11 duke of Beau beaufort fort nort almoner 1 11 plain mr payne makeshift se second ond in the race and fifteen or twenty more whom I 1 do not mention as they are only misters and are not so intimately ti our personal friends as the lords lord and dukes whose names I 1 have set down this was the ninety third annual derby the track was a little over a mile and a half partly up and down accents ascents and descents the time two minutes and forty five seconds the race closed at three and twenty minutes and in ten minutes thereafter the news was wag in portugal italy egypt and india as I 1 learn by this mornings papers and I 1 suppose also new york and kan gan san ban francisco although you ought h t to have heard of it about nine hours before it happened as you do now about three weeks after FAR farallones ALLONES the count do de grasse was once woun ded in the knee with a musket ball the doctors cut and hacked backed and made many incisions when getting out of all patience the count asked why they cut him up so much we are seeking said the surgeon for the ball why you mention that before I 1 have the ball in my pocket 44 villain cried the enraged husband you have killed my wife editor with dignity sir I 1 am an editor not a doctor just it cried the bereaved husband you have I 1 killed tiled her on paper and ashes alive if she is not dead I 1 congratulate you 71 congratulate remand I 1 demand dai dal damages nages for disappointment |