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PASSING OF THE NEGRO JOCKEY. John Boden, former secretary of the New York State Racing Commission, writes interestingly of the practical extinction of the negro as a race rider. "Perhaps climatic conditions ensuing upon the transference of the sport, from the south to the north had something to do with this remarkable condition," he comments. "Perhaps, too,, the peculiar susceptibility of the colored race to tuberculosis, and the fact that stomach troubles incident to long fasting and the exhausting demands of reducing, added to the natural predisposition to consumption, may account in part for its failure to live in competition with the white boy. "In any event, three decades of years ago the negro was in Ids zenith as a race rider. Mayhap naturally so then, liecause the majority of the owners of thoroughbred horses were iu the south, and the negro was the natural attendant of the horse. "Gradually, with the coming of the sport to the north, the negro jockey lost his ascendency. The white boy became the preferred one, and today a colored race rider is almost as rare on the tracks as is a gray horse. It is a wonderful change that has come within twenty years. "Then there were Isaac Murphy, the per in conduct and in judgment of any white rider; Lenny Clayton and his brother, both well behaved, well dressed and competent jockeys; Pike Barnes, who won the iirst Futurity with Proctor Knott, beating the great Salvator; Willie Simms, who achieved success both in this country and in England: Coley Stone and Tonv Hamilton, Soup Perkins, who made his debut iu the east witli Henry of Navarre, aud Joe Harris, who was a successful rider in California in 1907. The majority of these riders are dead those living practically all are in destitute circumstances. Those who are not dead have passed away from the turf. Isaac Murphy, the dean and the idol of the black race, as he was the pride of all horsemen, died in Louisville practically penniless. He never survived the accusation, that he was drunk when Tea Tray, In the summer of 1S90. defeated the great Firenzi. He was suspended for thirty days by the stewards Of the meeting a most inadequate sentence if he was intoxicated an unjust verdict If ho had been drugged, for the reason that the culprits escaped penalty altogether. Perhaps the association did not care to have its great new park saddled with what promised to be the gravest scandal on the American turf. "Be that as it may. it practically ended the turf career or Murphy. He was tubercular and, in time, developed stomach trouble from his efforts to keep down to weight. This latter ailment was added to by hs fondness for champagne. It was, he contended, the only liquor he could take that would strengthen without fattening him. He often said his champagne bills were equal to all his other living expenses and he- lived well. He probably averaged about 2,000 a year for ten years, but he had a number of camp followers and was too generous with them. " Pike Barnes for a time promised to maintain a high place in the jockey ranks, but increasing weight and a fondness for night life dulled his judgment. An accident, too, brought on a timidity and a depression that ho did not seem to be able to shake off. He was riding in the race at Chicago in which a boy named Abbas was killed. Barnes was immediately behind Abbas when the latter fell. Pikes mount strode on the boy .and literally crushed the life out of him.. Barnes nerve was practically gone forever after. He rode one or two good races subsequently notably his victory on Tenny in the Brooklyn handicap but practically bis career ended with the accident. It was said he could not be induced to sleep in the night time, frequently sitting up until daylight, then to fall asleep until it would be time for him to get ready to go to the races. "Of course such a life as that had to have but one ending, and that a sharp one. Owuers and trainers wanted riders cool-headed, vigorous and with nerves of steel. Boys in the topmost best of health were none too good and there was no room at all for the others. Barnes had the good sense not to dally about the race track and become a wreck. He took with hint what was left of his savings and started a saloon in Chicago. His career lasted only a brief half dozen seasons and none of his race has since attained the eminence the colored rider had achieved. "Some may question this latter statement and point to Willie Simms, also a colored rider who has passed away from the saddle, but Simms was a consistent jockey rather than a sensational one. ne earned large fees when he rode for the late Michael F. Dwyer and for Richard Croker, and did not appear to be a boy addicted to the dissipations that accounted for the downfall of many of his fellows. But money seemed to llow from him. He had at one time, or it was so reported, a bank account of generous proportions, and some land on Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, but the bulk of It has gone front hint. The trip which he took to England In the ill-starred Dwyer and Croker invasion of 1S95, it was said, was responsible for the bulk of his losses, and it probably was. He and Mr. Dwyer, it was believed, stood a tap on narry. Reed in the Stewards Cup when that fast horse was left at the post. Be that as it may, Simms has passed front the saddle and has taken with hint :i comparative nothing of the rortune that once was his. "Tony Hamilton was another of the great black riders who has gone and has not been replaced. Friends rescued his body from a paupers grave and gave it a decent burial. He must have earned at least 00,000 in ten years. He had no particularly large vices, but lie never had the slightest appreciation of the value of money. He was without education and, except when in the saddle, was perhaps the most stupid and uninteresting person that ever passed through the gate of a race course. He could neither read nor write, and it was dilhcult to understand what he said. No trainer ever was certain Tony understood what was said to hint. He was. however, a natural horseman, alert at the post, a fair judge of pace and a wonderfully powerful liu-i slier. "Most jockeys have a way of talking to their mounts when on the way to the post, but Hamilton kept up a constant kind of gibber that was always a source of amusement. Most of the money he earned he almost literally gave away. He never knew its value. He had had a sort of mushroom growth, springing in a short time from an undersized exercise boy with a cot in a stall to where he could earn hundreds of dollars in a day. "Perhaps it is little wonder, under the circumstances, that he didnt appreciate its value. Champagne and diamonds were his weaknesses, and in his heyday be had a large following. He never reck-d the cost of anything. The ,000 diamond that he would wear today would be the property of his valet or his favorite tomorrow. A bank roll to hint was merely a bank roll. It might be of notes or of or 00 notes. It was good just for so long as it lasted. If it were of notes it probablv lasted hint just as long as would one composed entirely of 00 notes. His cashiers kept his accounts. Perhaps the only place iu which he was absolutely safe from the vultures was the race track, for there his friends knew his failings and the touchers waited until he- got beyond the gates before they began their carousing at ids expense. It was pathetic at times to see the way iu which the black bov was parting witli bis money, but apparently be did "not realize it. and it was not until his money was all gone and necessity for bread and shelter and medicine pressed him that it came to him how valuable a little saving might have been. "The Claytons Lonny particularly lasted per- ; haps lietter than any of the other boys riding for the reason that they took good care of themselves but the white boys outstripped theiii and they had sense enough to retire while they still had some of the money they had earned. One of their contemporaries was Thompson, who rode many a good thing for the late Jack McDonald and the coterie of smart horsemen that made money in the days of Clifton and of Guttenburg. He was a particularly strong finisher, but his career was short. He could not stand the climate or the reducing necessary and passed away, with no one of his color at those tracks to succeed him. if Harry Jones be excepted. "But Jones lacked brain. He was just as illiterate as Hamilton, and his season was a brief btie. Perhaps in justice to the boy it may bo said that he was poorly looked after. He was not treated generously, and the boy became sour, heavy and finally met a deserved discipline for some suspicious work. He had no ambition afterward and drifted into th submerged. Penn shone for a time with the stabl of A. II. and D. II. Morris, but he rapidly went the way of the others. "Joe Harris, who was better known In the west than iu the cast, having ridden for Richard F. Carman in the season of 1907, when he was the premier jockey at Ascot Park, was the best of the late colored riders. He was killed iu Texas two or three years ago. lie called on a young woman in his native town and took her for a drive. A rival warned him not to do it again. He not only did not heed the warning, but went to the stable where his rival kept a horse, told the liveryman he had been sent for the horse, got It, took the woman out aud. after returning her to her home, took the horse back to the stable. The rival, with an automatic pistol, killed him liefore Harris could reach for his pistol. "The Harris Incident is quoted not as showing that the negro has not maintained himself la the saddle, but as illustrating how few black boys are actually riding. True, the whites outnumber the blacks, and there was the greater opportunity for a choice by trainers, but not so much as to justify the present preponderance when it is considered how many colored boys were actively and prominently in the saddle twenty or more years ago. "There is no escape from the fact that the black boys nowadays who attach themselves to stables rarely rise above the position of rubbers or foremen. It may be that race prejudice has something to do with it just as it has in football, baseball, pugilism and other sports but the decrease now amounts to practical extinction on the turf. In other spurts save prize lighting, the colored men were neither promiscuous nor prominent."
