Consolation for The Inefficient One of the most striking of the the modern woman goes to the Races. No I display her ignorance about "weighing out fa the: way in. white, Fis she. supposed to, startors;" "stables. and: ponies" or riders' than merely to wes can oven dispone uallfiations."
She must be able to do far more Ther new frock well Torethe occasion. In fact sh with a new frock, 20 much more important. innumerable other aspects of the Races nowadays.
And yet with all her modern} efficiency, one wonders if familiarity with "favourites," ote. ete., can! make up to her for the loss of that "cushiony" feeling which one of the old school had in turning over her! money to att obliging male companion with instructions to "pick, please, a nice horse—preferably one that is going to win.
Comparisons are always worse than odious. But one wonders inwardly whether modern woman, in ance of the sacecmling. presses, simply, that new urba that poise through practic,. which the modern woman has acquired through systematic study—hours of concentration, maybo—of what all this racing business bout. Sometimes, of course, she must become a part of the hustle and Dustle of the booking office, but does tone see ever distressed looks, a "fa' xt perplexity, the natural outcome of the so-called feminine mind in certain of her unaffected moments," does not deplore her lost privilege inefficiency at the races, Contrast a past generation which one hastens to. add—one has heard described. Only a very few! ladies of questionable frame of mind took any interest in of Form" or could give any logical reasons why they happened to win little money at the races. Oh, dear me! How much more exciting was that slightly ruffled sensation, expressed in the sir] of one's skirt flounces, following upon the unexpected pleasure of having a "roll of bills" thrust into one's hands by the Obliging Male Companion, again, who had manipulated the whole incident to the entire satis faction of the feminine race-goer A bit of a bore for the OAC, of course, but the elements of chance contact with things not understood? Not a chance! Aggressiveness hap accompanied familiarity with recondite racing.
Yet sometimes, apart from the fact that one has relinquished the ability to sit back and let somebody else do the work, there are other curious things about this new attitude, Possibly accounting for the ever-present. stimulus to the Himagination exercised by racing, ix the knowledge that regardless' of how much we may know about everything, how many tips dropped from powers that be, one can never be sure, Take, for example, on Wednesday "Did you hear that So-and-So-won $4,000?" someone asked me, "Good heavens, no!" 1 replied, "How did she manage to do Hut! "How did she manage to do were given full play, Now, how docs it work? The first day of' the races one Keeps careful book. Does one bet day which \won in the various races the day before? Oh, dear no! This is the little element of "graft" about ing, you say with a knowing nod. Does. one rander about aimlessly mingling with the smartly groomed crowds, enjoying the scene, occasionally smiling benignly upon those favoured by fortune? Yes certainly, but. this is not done through any lack of enthusiasm, any diminished sense of the import:
Providential Eye looking out for the interests of the unsophintientod at I the races. 'That is how these things happen. Whereas when you become fet shir for. yourself. sees these matters, the Eye would scont that there' fa xomeihing {obo said, after ally for that old attitude of letting one's talenty lio fallow at. the. tacos." Intact, Te fccmm the one occasion on which me eficloney stands as good a chance an {ts more purposeful ekler- nxtor-—~ Silt O'Lantern,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.