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, i , j i GOSSIP OF THE TURF. The following yarn about a locally well known character is told by T. B. Cromwell in the Enquirer: "Harry Stover, after a successful season this side of the Bockies, has shipped his string from Chicago to California to go into winter quarters at the old California Jockey Club track at Sacramento, which is now hisZ, property. Stover is one of the turfs characters, and the stories which could be written around his habits and acts and his failures and successes would make a volume of great size. He is a gypsy and is possessed of many superstitions. He believes, among other things, that to hang a snake head downward from a nail in front of his barn will bring good luck, and his first act on reaching a new racing ground is to hunt a reptile and so suspend him from the abed of his stable. Through that superstition he acquired the sobriquet The Snake. Stover lost one fortune with a bad lot of horses, and then he manufactured and sold a remedy for rheumatism, which brought him money enough to maintain rather an inferior racing outfit until fortune favored him again. It was at Montreal about five years ago that ho picked np a silver bangle as he walked across the infield from his stable to the grandstand. He hadnt a cent of money in his pocket. There was nothing on the card for the afternoon that he fancied and, after his custom on such days, he had dug a hole in the stall of one of his horses and planted his roll of ab6ut C0, leaving a faithful shepherd dog to watch it until his return. Doc Graydon chanced to meet him as he came near the stand, and challenged him to shoot dice. I have no money, replied Stover, and as he displayed the bangle added: This piece of silver is the size of my pile. Gray don agreed to wager a quarter against it, and so the game started, and ended with Stover 00 winner. That 00 he bet the next day on one of his horses, Salvador, I believe, donblinc it. A bet on Nettie Begent brought the bank roll up to ,200. A few days later he bought Kenilworth and Edinborough from Green Morris. Kenilworth proved the best horse in California that winter, and with the money he made him 31 over bought other good racers, and finally the Sacramento racetrack, which he has converted into a breeding and training establishment." A member of the Metropolitan Turf Association received a cable Monday from "Bob" Rose, the American layer of odds, who was among those ordered expelled from France by the officials of the French Jockey Club, saying that ho had been fully exonerated from any connection with the fraudulent transactions and exposure of which brought about the undoing of many prominent American riders and layers of odds. The dispatch also said that Rose would sail for home on the Kronprinz Wilhelm on Wednesday of this week. A London cable to the Sun says Bichard Croker recently acquired an estato in Ireland to which he will soon ship the stallions Dobbins and Americus. It is his intention to establish an extensive stud farm. The estate is at Ballingarry, County Limerick. According to a friend of Mr. Croker it is one of the most beautiful spots in Ireland. Sentimental interest attaches to the place for Mr. Croker, it having belonged to his ancestors.
