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.
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