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" WHITE Y" LANGD0N AND GWYN TOMPKINS. Some Incidents in the Careers of Two Interesting Eastern Turfmen. Washington, I. C. March 28. — George Washington Whitey Langdon, one of the best-known followers of the turf In this country, tells me that l he reason he bought Animus and Call Bov last week from J. E. Madden for ,000. was because he had had a good day. and Willie Shields advised him to liny Call Boy. a half-brother to Faust, while he himself liked Animus. "I think the people around New York may take this as some evidence of my faith that racing will be seen on the New York track* this year on the same grand scale as heretofore," said Langdon to day. "Whitey" Langdon is one of the most deservedly popular men on the track. Entirely without his knowledge, instances of Langdon* s unheralded generosity to many a i oor fellow who has not been so fortunate have l een told me. He is a typicallv optimistic turf devotee, and to him money does not mean much. Not long since I read of how the flip of a coin between Charles Reed and Colonel Acklin, the former owner of Fairview Farm in Tennessee, determined tlie question whether Mr. Reeil should pay 0,000 or 0,000 for that famed nursery of the thoroughbred when he bought it many years ago. Mr. Reed won tlie toss. Today Langdon detailed an instance of the faith he had in his mare. Flip Flap, a few days before the race for the Brighton Cup of 1906. won by the James B. Brady cast off, Holscher, racing in Willie Continued on second page. " WHITE Y" LANGD0N AND GWYN TOMPKINS. Continued from first page. Shields name and colors, with Langdons 4,000 mare. Flip Flap, second. He had won the marks purchase price at the Shecpshead Bay June meeting, but she was cut down in a race soon afterward and laid up for several months. The Brighton Cup. with a value of 2,000 or thereabouts, appeared to be at her mercy, however, for two weeks beton the race. But meantime I.angdon had become short of money and was de-sirens of selling Flip Flap. He suggested to James B. Brady that he could have the mare ou these terms- 2.H»0 in cash, or that amount of money was to be bet lor him ou the mare in the race. Thus, if she won. I.angdon would get back in bet about what she cost, and if she lost, he would have neither mare nor money. Brady hesitaleil. and the deal was not arranged. The aggravating part of it was that if Brady had boaght Flip Flap he would not have consented to his cast off Holsclnr running in the race, as the engagement was his. and Holscher would not have defeated Flip Flap and made so great a difference to Langdon. True, he still had his mare, but her chief value before the cup race was her engagement in that, which seemed a certainty for her. Flip Flap is now the property of Harry Payne Whitney, who bought her to add to the collection of noted turf performer* gathered together in his lifetime by the late William C. Whitney. Langil • was surprised to know that Flip Flap is an entry in the Empire City Handicap at Yonkers. lie understood that she would be bred this season. Gwyn Tompkins, known all over the west some years ago. is up here for a few days from his comfortable home in Virginia. I have known Gwyn for many years, and last night as he sat iu the parlor of the Raleigh in full dress, looking the part of an able, educated. liberal-minded horse-owner, the picture of contentment and prosperity. I took part with him in the talk of the wave of hypocrisy which is sweeping all over the conn try. and which. I am glad to say. has had a magnificent rebuke in England, where the hypocritical government is meddling with the right of a man to take a drink when he feels like it. By a great vote the town of Peekliam, a suburb of Ijondon, has voted out of fiower a member of parliament who stood for the government policy of repressing person] liberty, and the cablegrams picture in graphic stories the tremendous cheering in parliament when the news reached there on election nighl. •Do you know that in my state. Virginia," said Mr. Tompkins, "they are endeavoring to pass the most outrageous laws against drinking that were ever heard of. A man will dare not ask another to take a drink, and on a train you will be eatable to get a drink without the consent of the conductor. Think of that, in the good old commonwealth." The other day the New York Evening Sun celebrated with a dinner to 100 of its employes its twenty-first birthday. I do not know if Mr. Tompkins was present, but he was entitled to sit in. for along abawt lSltO he was reporting the races at Saratoga for the Evening Sun. and that year became memorable through the fact that he was accredited wilh winning large sums of money, the news attracting attention all over the country because it was a reporter who was the hero of it. As a matter of fact, I believe that a large par; of those winnings were for W. J. Arkell, of Judge and Frank Leslies, who at that time was a Capitalist and a newer in Republican ]K litics through his up-state connections. He acted as trustee for the Prexcl estate, and was in charge of the cottage at Mount McGregor, near Saratoga, at which President Grant lingered long in his last ill ness. Mr. Arkell was another of the many who. in the course of a long career on the turf, I have met. whom it was an honor and a pleasure to know. Just how many men "Billy" Arkell helped out of trouble will never be known, but the list Is a Dm.— one. The late Lewis Elmore trained horses for him for several years, and when Ethelbert was B two year old he ran in James Galwavs colors, but Mr. Arkell was half owner of the stable. Some years before that, if I am not mistaken. Seoggan Bros, sold to Mr. Arkell the colt, Hin-ilooeraft. which was trained or managed by Gwyn Tompkins, who at that period also began to race steeplechasers, among them the good mare Can Can. J. J. Burke.
