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PASSING OF THE NEGRO JOCKEY. What has b me of all the negro jockeys? A few years ago it was no uncommon thing to see four or five in every race. Mtiny of them became celebrities. Isaac Murphy was accounted as good a rider as this country ever saw. On Salvator he won the Suburban, beating Cassius by a head. Murphy also rode Salvator when he beat Tenny in a match race. Murphy was called "the colored Archer" for the reason that both the English jockey and the American negro were • -marvelous judges of |ki h . Murphy rode for J. B. Ilaggin and all the prominent stables racing iu the south and east. He died some time ago. Tony Hamilton, another celebrated negro jockey, was brought out by William Lakeland. Hamilton died in Russia. His home was in Brooklyn. "Monk" Overton, famous for his great ability in the homestretch, rode for Edward Corrigan. Overton owns a saloon in Chicago. Willie Simnis, a inulatta. rode for the late M. F. Dwyer: also for Dwycr and Richard Croker iu England about the vear 1892. Winktield rode the great McCliesney for S. C. Hildreth. This horse is now in the stud in the Argentine Republic. McCliesney always hated uc groos — for that matter, hated anything black. It was often necessary to blindfold the borne before Winkfield could get in the saddle. Mi-Chesnevs antipathy toward anything of dark complexion began a hen as a two-year-old at Washington Park. Chicago, he was bumped and knocked down bv a bkick colt. He hit a fence post and was knocked out of training for the rest of the season. After that Mc-Chesney would never tolerate anything "r anybody that was black. Once, after his morning exercise at New Orleans, he was returned to his stall to find that a black goat had straywl within. Witii his teeth the horse picked up Mr. Goat by tbtf middle of the back and dropped him overboard. Aside from this peculiarity McCliesney was always a good-tempered horse and even in this he was not vicious. Pike Barnes was another notable among the negro jockeys. Tlie popularity of the colored riders mi largely due to the fact that they were brought to the east and north by owners and trainers when most of the race horses were bred in the south. Tlie negro is a natural ami close friend of the thorough bred. But the disappearance of negro jockeys is not so well understood. Some horsemen say that the white boys have driven them away by threats of fouling on the track and by lighting and other uncomfortable methods. Certainly of late there has been a decided paucity of colored riding material.
