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Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 by Various

V >> Various >> Lippincott\'s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880




This reasoning seemed logical enough, but the administration of the
_Haras_, or breeding-stables--which is in France a branch of the civil
service--opposed this innovation, and contended that the only pure type
of horse was the primitive Arab, and that every departure from this
resulted in the production of an animal more or less degenerate and
debased. The reply of the Jockey Club was, that the English
thoroughbred is, in fact, nothing else than a pure Arab, modified only
by the influences of climate and treatment, and that it would be much
wiser and easier to profit by a result already obtained than to
undertake to retrace, with all its difficulties and delays, the same
road that England had taken a century to travel.

The experience gained since 1833 has shown that the conclusions of the
Jockey Club were right, but the evidence of facts and of the results
obtained has not yet brought the discussion to a close. The
administration of the Haras still keeps up its opposition to the
raising of thoroughbreds, and will no doubt continue to do so for some
time to come, so tenacious is the hold of routine--or, as the
Englishman might say, of red tape--upon the official mind in France,
whether the question be one of finance, of war or of the breeding of
horses.

But it is not only against the ill-will of the administration that the
Jockey Club has had to struggle during all these years: it has had also
to contend with the still more disheartening indifference of the public
in the matter of racing. There is no disputing the fact that the
genuine lover of the horse, the _homme de cheval_--or, if I may be
forgiven a bit of slang for the sake of its expressiveness, the
_horsey_ man, whether he be coachman or groom, jockey or trainer--is
not in France a genuine product of the soil, as he seems to be in
England. Look at the difference between the cabman of London and his
brother of Paris, if there be enough affinity between them to justify
this term of relationship. The one drives his horse, the other seems to
be driven by his. In London the driver of an omnibus has the air of a
gentleman managing a four-in-hand: in Paris the imbecile who holds the
reins looks like a workman who has been hired by the day to do a job
that he doesn't understand. So pronounced is this antipathy--for it is
more than indifference--of the genuine man of the people toward all
things pertaining to the horse that, notwithstanding all the
encouragements that for nearly half a century have been lavishly
offered for the purpose of developing a public taste in this direction,
not a single jockey or trainer who can properly be called a Frenchman
has thus far made his appearance. All the men and boys employed in the
racing-stables are of English origin, though many, perhaps most, of
them have been born in France; but the purity of their English blood,
so important in their profession, is as jealously preserved by
consanguineous marriages as is that of the noble animals in their
charge. It was an absolute necessity for the early turfmen of France to
import the Anglo-Saxon man with the Anglo-Arabian horse if they would
bring to a creditable conclusion the programme of 1833. And during all
the long period that has since elapsed what courage and patience, what
determined will, to say nothing of the prodigious expenditure of money,
have been shown by the founders of the race-course in France and by
their successors! Their perseverance has had its reward, indeed, in the
brilliancy of the results obtained, but there is still due to them an
ampler tribute of recognition than they have yet received, and it will
be a grateful duty to dwell for a while upon the history of the Jockey
Club.

Of its fourteen original members but two survive, the duc de Nemours
and M. Ernest Leroy. The other twelve were His Royal Highness the duc
d'Orleans, M. Rieussec, who was killed by the infernal machine of
Fieschi, the comte de Cambis, equerry to the duc d'Orleans, Count
Demidoff, Fasquel, the chevalier de Machado, the prince de la Moskowa,
M. de Normandie, Lord Henry Seymour, Achille Delamarre, Charles Lafitte
and Caccia. To these fourteen gentlemen were soon added others of the
highest rank or of the first position in the aristocratic world of
Paris. People began to talk with bated breath of the Jockey Club and of
its doings, and strange stories were whispered of the habits of some of
its distinguished members. The eccentricities of Count Demidoff and of
Major Frazer, the obstreperous fooleries of Lord Henry Seymour, the
studied extravagances of Comte d'Alton-Shee, created in the public mind
the impression that the club was nothing less than a sort of infernal
pit, peopled by wicked dandies like Balzac's De Marsay, Maxime de
Trailles, Rastignac, etc. Even the box of the club at the opera was
dubbed with the uncanny nickname _loge infernale_, and the talk of the
town ran upon the frightful sums lost and won every night at the tables
of the exclusive _cercle_, while the nocturnal passer-by pointed with a
shudder to the windows of the first floor at the corner of the Rue de
Grammont and the Boulevard, glimmering until morning dawn with a light
altogether satanic. The truth must be confessed that _jeunesse doree_
of the period affected a style somewhat "loud." There was exaggeration
in everything--in literature--for it was the epoch of the great
romantic impulse--in art, in politics: what wonder, then, that the
distractions of high life should over-pass the boundaries of good
taste, and even of propriety? The Jockey Club in the time of Louis
Philippe did but recall the good old days of Brookes's and of White's,
of the two Foxes, of George Selwyn and of Sheridan. But how changed is
all this! There is not to-day in Paris, perhaps in the world, a more
sedate, reputable and in every sense temperate club than the "Jockey."
It concerns itself only with racing, the legitimate object of its
foundation, and nothing else is discussed in its salons, if we except
one room, which under the Empire was baptized "The Camp of Chalons,"
for the reason that it had come to be reserved for the use of the old
soldiers, who met there to talk over incidents of army life. Baccarat,
that scourge of Parisian clubs, is forbidden, and lovers of play are
obliged to content themselves with a harmless rubber of whist. As one
black ball in six is sufficient to exclude a candidate--or, to use the
official euphemism, to cause his "postponement"--it is not difficult
for the coterie that controls the club to keep it clear of all noisy,
or even of merely too conspicuous, individuality. Lord Henry Seymour
would be "pilled" to-day by a probably unanimous vote. A candidate may
enjoy all the advantages of wealth and position, he may have the entree
to all the salons, and may even be a member of clubs as exclusive as
the Union and the Pommes-de-Terre, and yet he may find himself unable
to gain admission to the Jockey. Any excess of notoriety, any marked
personal eccentricity, would surely place him under the ban. Scions of
ancient families, who have had the wisdom to spend in the country and
with their parents the three or four years succeeding their college
life, would have a much better chance of admission than a leader of
fashion such as I have described. The illustrious General de Charette;
M. Soubeyran, at that time governor of the _Credit foncier_ of France;
the young Henry Say, brother-in-law of the prince A. de Broglie, rich
and accomplished, and the owner, moreover, of a fine racing-stable;
together with many other gentlemen whose private lives were above
suspicion,--have been blackballed for the simple reason that they were
too widely known. As to foreigners, let them avoid the mortification of
certain defeat by abstaining from offering themselves, unless indeed
they should happen to be the possessors of a great historic name or
should occupy in their own country a position out of the reach of
ordinary mortals. This careful exclusion of all originality and
diversity has, by degrees, communicated to the club a complexion
somewhat negative and colorless, but at the same time, it must be
admitted, of the most perfect distinction. The most influential
members, although generally very wealthy, live in Paris with but few of
the external signs of luxury, and devote their incomes to home comforts
and to the improvement of their estates. If one should happen to meet
on the Champs Elysees a mail-coach or a _daumont_ [an open carriage,
the French name of which has been adopted by the English, like
_landau_, etc. It is drawn by two horses driven abreast, and each
mounted by a postilion. The nearest English equivalent is a
"victoria."] that makes the promenaders turn and look back, or if there
be an _avant-scene_ at the Varietes or the Palais Royal that serves as
a point of attraction for all the lorgnettes of the theatre, one may be
quite sure that the owners of these brilliant turnouts and the
occupants of this envied box are not members of the club--"_the_ Club,"
_par excellence_, for thus is it spoken of in Paris. It is considered
quite correct at the club to devote one's self to the raising of cattle
and sheep, as the comtes de Bouville, de Behague, de Hauteserre and
others have done with such success, and one may even follow the example
of the comte de Falloux, the eloquent Academician, in emblazoning with
one's arms a pen of fat pigs at a competitive show, without in the
least derogating from one's dignity. One may also sell the wine from
one's vineyards and the iron from one's furnaces--for the iron industry
is in France looked upon as a sort of heritage of the nobility--but to
get money by any other means than those I have indicated would be
considered in the worst possible taste. On the other hand, it is
permitted to any member of the club to lose as much money as he pleases
without loss of the respect of his fellows, and the surest way to
arrive at this result is to undertake the breeding and running of
horses.

As to the external appearance and bearing of the perfect clubman, it is
very much that of Disraeli's hero, "who could hardly be called a dandy
or a beau. There was nothing in his dress, though some mysterious
arrangement in his costume--some rare simplicity, some curious
happiness--always made him distinguished: there was nothing, however,
in his dress, which could account for the influence that he exercised
over the manners of his contemporaries;" and it is probably a fact that
a member of the club is never noticed by passers on the street on
account of anything in his dress or appearance. In short, the club
seems to have adopted for its motto _Sancta simplicitas_, and the
descendants of the old nobility of France, excluded as they practically
are to-day from all public employment save that of the army, seem
determined to live amongst themselves, in tranquillity and retirement,
in such a way as to attract the least possible notice from the press or
from the crowd. Their portraits never find their way into the
illustrated papers, and no penny-a-liner ventures to make them the
subject of a biographical sketch: indeed, any one rash enough to seek
to tread upon this forbidden ground would find himself met at the
threshold by a dignified but very decided refusal of all information
and material necessary to his undertaking.

As an illustration of the care taken by the ruling spirits of the club
to preserve the attitude which they have assumed toward the public, it
may be worth mentioning that Isabelle, who for a long time enjoyed the
distinction of serving the club as its accredited flower-girl, and who
in that capacity used to hold herself in readiness every evening in her
velvet tub at the foot of the staircase of the splendid apartments at
the corner of the Boulevard and the Rue Scribe--the present location of
the club--was dismissed for no other reason than that she had become
too extensively known to the gay world of Paris. Excluded from the
sacred paddock on the race-course, she is to-day compelled to content
herself on great occasions with selling her flowers on the public turf
from a pretty basket-wagon drawn by a pair of coquettish black ponies,
or "toy" ponies in the language of the day.

Notwithstanding the magnificence of the present quarters of the club to
which I have referred, one cannot help regretting that, unlike the
Agricultural Society and the Club of the Champs Elyses, it is obliged
to confine itself to one story of the building--the first floor,
according to continental enumeration--though the rental of this floor
alone amounts to some three hundred thousand francs a year.

The committee on races, composed of fifteen members (founders) and
fifteen associate members--the latter elected every year by the
founders--represents the club in all that concerns its finances and
property, votes the budget, the programme of all races and the
conditions of the prizes, and not only legislates in making the laws
that govern the course, but acts also as judge in deciding questions
that may arise under the code that it has established. And as a
legislative body it has its hands almost as full as that of the state,
for the budget of the society grows from year to year as rapidly as the
nation's, and there are now forty-nine turfs for which it is
responsible or to which it has extended its protection. The presidency
of the committee, after having been held for many years by the lamented
Vicomte Daru, passed on his death last year to M. Auguste Lupin, the
oldest proprietor of race-horses in France. To M. Lupin, moreover,
belongs the honor of being the first breeder in France who has beaten
the English in their own country by gaining the Goodwood Cup in 1855
with Jouvence--success that was renewed by his horse Dollar in 1864. M.
Lupin, who had six times won the Jockey Club Purse (the French Derby)
and twice the Grand Prix de Paris, occupies very much the same position
in France that Lord Falmouth holds in England, and, like him, he never
bets. His colors, black jacket and red cap, are exceedingly popular,
and received even more than their wonted share of applause in the year
1875, the most brilliant season in the history of his stables, when he
carried off all the best prizes with St. Cyr, Salvator and Almanza. His
stud, which has numbered amongst its stallions the Baron, Dollar and
the Flying Dutchman, is at Vaucresson, near Versailles. His
training-stables are at La Croix, St. Ouen.

Of the remaining members of the committee on races, the best known are
the prince de la Moskowa, the comte A. de Noailles, Henry Delamarre,
Comte Frederic de Lagrange, Comte A. des Cars, J. Mackenzie-Grieves,
Comte H. de Turtot, the duc de Fitz-James, Baron Shickler, the prince
A. d'Aremberg, Prince Joachim Murat, Comte Roederer, the marquis de
Lauriston, Baron Gustave de Rothschild, E. Fould and the comtes de St.
Sauveur, de Kergorlay and de Juigne. Most of these gentlemen run their
horses, or have done so, and the list will be found to comprise, with
two or three exceptions, the principal turfmen of France. The comte de
Juigne and the prince d'Aremberg, both very rich, and much liked in
Paris, have formed a partnership in turf matters, and the colors they
have adopted, yellow and red stripes for the jacket, with black cap,
are always warmly welcomed. In 1873, with Montargis, they won the
Cambridgeshire Stakes, which were last year carried off by the American
horse Parole, and in 1877 they renewed the exploit with Jongleur. The
count, on this latter occasion, had taken no pains to conceal the
merits of his horse, but, on the contrary, had spoken openly of what he
believed to be his chances, and had even advised the betting public to
risk their money upon him. As the English were giving forty to one
against him, the consequence of M. de Juigne's friendly counsel was
that the morning after the race saw a perfect shower of gold descending
upon Paris, the English guineas falling even into the white caps held
out with eager hands by the scullions of the cafes that line the
Boulevard. One well-known restaurateur, Catelain, of the Restaurant
Helder on the Boulevard des Italiens, pocketed a million of francs, and
testified his satisfaction, if not his gratitude, by forthwith
baptizing a new dish with the name of the winning horse. The comte de
Juigne himself cleared three millions, and many members of the club
were made the richer by sums ranging from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty thousand francs. The marquis de Castellane, an habitual
gambler, who happened to have put only a couple of hundred louis on the
horse, could not hide his chagrin that his venture had returned him but
a hundred and sixty thousand francs. Jongleur won the French Derby (one
hundred and three thousand francs) in 1877, besides thirteen other
important races. He was unfortunately killed while galloping in his
paddock in September, 1878.

The Scotch jacket and white cap of the duc de Fitz-James, owner of the
fine La Sorie stud, and the same colors, worn by the jockeys of the duc
de Fezenzac, have won but few of the prizes of the turf, and another
nobleman, the comte de Berteux (green jacket, red cap) is noted for the
incredible persistency of his bad luck. M. Edouard Fould, whose mount
is known by the jackets hooped with yellow and black and caps of the
latter color, is the proprietor of the well-known D'Ibos stud at the
foot of the Pyrenees, one of the largest and best-ordered
establishments of the kind in France; and it is to him and to his
uncle, the late Achille Fould, that the South owes in a great degree
the breeding and development of the thoroughbred horse. M. Delatre
(green jacket and cap) raises every year, at La Celle St. Cloud, some
twenty yearlings, of which he keeps but three or four, selling the rest
at Tattersall's, Rue Beaujon, to the highest bidder. They generally
bring about six thousand francs a head, on an average.

The feeling against Germany after the war led to a proposition to expel
from the club all members belonging to that country; and it was only
the liking and sympathy felt for one of them, Baron Schickler, a very
wealthy lover of the turf and for a long time resident in France, which
caused a rejection of the motion. Baron Schickler, however, has
nominally retired from the turf since 1870, and his horses are now run
under the pseudonyme of Davis. His colors are white for the jacket,
with red sleeves and cherry cap. Another member, Mr. A. de Montgomery,
the excellent Norman breeder and the fortunate owner of La Toucques and
of Fervaques, has also given up racing under his own name, and devotes
himself exclusively to the oversight of the Rothschild stables. The
good-fortune which the mere possession of this distinguished name would
seem sufficient to ensure has not followed the colors of Baron Gustave
de Rothschild in the racing field, where his blue jackets and yellow
caps have not been the first to reach the winning-post in the contests
for the most important prizes. He buys, nevertheless, the best mares
and the finest stallions, and he has to-day, in his excellent stud at
Meautry, the illustrious Boiard, who had won, before he came into the
baron's possession, the Ascot Cup of 1873 and the Grand Prix de Paris.
The Rothschild training-stables are at Chantilly. Boiard, as well as
Vermont, another of the grandest horses ever foaled in France, and a
winner also of the Grand Prix de Paris, was formerly in possession of
M. Henry Delamarre, who in the days of the Empire enjoyed a short
period of most remarkable success, having won the French Derby no less
than three times within four years. His choice of colors was a maroon
jacket with red sleeves and black cap. He had some lesser triumphs last
year, at the autumn meeting in the Bois de Boulogne, where his mare
Reine Claude won the Prix du Moulin by two lengths, his horse Vicomte,
who up to that time had been running so badly, taking the Prix
d'Automne, while the second prize of the same name was carried off by
Clelie, thus gaining for the Delamarre stables three races out of the
five contested on that day. All M. Delamarre's horses come from the
Bois-Roussel stud, belonging to Comte Roederer.

There remain to be mentioned, amongst the number of gentlemen who are
in the habit of entering their horses for races in France, a Belgian,
the comte de Meeues, one of whose horses was the favorite in the race
last mentioned, and though beaten, as often happens with favorites, he
and other animals from the same stables have this year carried away
several of the provincial prizes; M.L. Andre, owner of this season's
winners of the steeple-chase handicap known as the Prix de Pontoise and
of several hurdle-races; M.A. de Borda, who was unsuccessful in the
present year in three at least of the races in which he had entered;
M.E. de la Charme, who in June, 1879, took the Grand Prix du
Conseil-General (handicap) at Lyons, and in September won at Vincennes
the hurdle-race Prix de Charenton; the marquis de Caumont-Laforce,
whose colors were first this summer at Moulins in the Prix du
Conseil-General, and in the third Criterium at Fontainebleau, as well
as in the grand handicap at Beauvais last July; M.P. Aumont, who has
been not without some good luck in the provinces during the past
season; M. Moreau-Chaslon, whose successes of late have hardly been in
proportion to his numerous entries, though he won the last Prix des
Villas at Vesinet, the Prix du Jockey Club (three thousand francs) at
Chalons-sur-Saone and the Prix du Mont-Valerien at the Bois de
Boulogne; and, to bring to an end our long list of devotees of the
turf, we add the name of M. Ephrussi, who, amongst the numerous races
in which he has entered horses in 1879, has been victorious in not a
few--for instance, in the steeple-chase handicap at La Marche, called
the Prix de Clairefontaine, in L'Express at Fontainebleau, in the Prix
de Neuilly at the Bois de Boulogne, and in the handicap for the Prix
des Ecuries at Chantilly, as well as in a race for gentlemen riders
only at Maison-Lafitte. Besides these and others, he gained last August
the Jockey Club Prize (five thousand francs) at Chalons-sur-Saone, the
Prix de Louray at Deauville for the like amount, another of the same
figures at Vichy, and the six thousand francs of the Grand Prix du
Havre. Most of the gentlemen last named are the owners of a
comparatively small number of horses, which are, perhaps without
exception, entrusted to the care of the famous trainer Henry Jennings
of La Croix, St. Ouen, near Compiegne.

Henry Jennings is a character. His low, broad-brimmed beaver--which has
gained him the sobriquet of "Old Hat"--pulled well down over a
square-built head, the old-fashioned high cravat in which his neck is
buried to the ears, the big shoes ensconced in clumsy gaiters, give him
more the air of a Yorkshire gentleman-farmer of the old school than of
a man whose home since his earliest youth has been in France. He is one
of the most original figures in the motley scene as he goes his rounds
in the paddock, mysterious and knowing, very sparing of his words, and
responding only in monosyllables even to the questions of his patrons,
while he whispers in the ears of his jockeys the final instructions
which many an interested spectator would give something to hear.
Beginning his career in the service of the prince de Beauvan, from
which he passed first to that of the duc de Morny and afterward to that
of the comte de Lagrange, he is now a public trainer upon his own
account, with more than a hundred horses under his care. No one has
devoted more intelligent study to the education of the racer or shown a
more intuitive knowledge of his nature and of his needs. It was he who
first threw off the shackles of ancient custom by which a horse during
the period of training was kept in such an unnatural condition, by
means of drugs and sweatings, that at the end of his term of probation
he was a pitiful object to behold. The pictures and engravings of
twenty years ago bear witness to the degree of "wasting" to which a
horse was reduced on the eve of a race, and the caricatures of the
period are hardly over-drawn when they exhibit to us the ghost of an
animal mounted by a phantom jockey. When people saw that Jennings was
able to bring to the winning-post horses in good condition, whose
training had been based upon nothing but regular work, they at first
looked on in astonishment, but afterward found their profit in
imitating his example. Under this rational system it has been proved
that the animal gains in power and endurance while he loses nothing in
speed. The same intrepid trainer has ventured upon another innovation.
Impressed with the inconveniences of shoeing, and annoyed by the
difficulty of finding a skilful smith in moving from one place to
another in the country, he conceived the idea of letting his horses go
shoeless, both during training and on the track; and, despite all that
could be urged against the practice his horses' feet are in excellent
condition. His many successes on the turf have not, however, been
crowned, as yet, by the Grand Prix de Paris, though in 1877 he thought
to realize the dream of his ambition with Jongleur, whom he had trained
and whom he loved like a son; and when the noble horse was beaten by an
outsider, St Christopher, "Old Hat" could not control an exhibition of
ill-humor as amusing as it was touching. When Jongleur died Jennings
wept for perhaps the first time in his life, and he was still unable to
restrain his tears when he described the tortures of the poor beast as
he struck his head against the sides of his box in the agonies of
lockjaw.

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