_Johnson_ (_at window--having offered to tame a vicious Horse for his
Friend_). "NOW, TOM, JUST COLLAR HOLD OF HIS HEAD, AND I'LL PUT THE
MUZZLE ON!"]

* * * * *

A SPORTING STYLE.

(_THIRD EXAMPLE._)

Two examples of a correct sporting style have been already laid before
the public. For convenience of reference they may be defined as the
mixed-pugilistic and the insolent. There is, however, a third variety,
the equine, in which everyone who aspires to wield the pen of a
sporting reporter must necessarily be a proficient. It may be well to
warn a beginner that he must not attempt this style until he has laid
in a large stock of variegated metaphoric expressions. As a matter of
fact one horse-race is very much like another in its main incidents,
and the process of betting against or in favour of one horse
resembles, more or less, the process of betting about any other. The
point is, however, to impart to monotonous incidents a variety they
do not possess; and to do this properly a luxuriant vocabulary is
essential. For instance, in the course of a race, some horses tire,
or, to put it less offensively, go less rapidly than others. The
reporter will say of such a horse that he (1) "shot his bolt," or
(2) "cried _peccavi_," or (3) "cried a go," or (4) "compounded," or
(5) "exhibited signals of distress," or (6) "fired minute guns," or
(7) "fell back to mend his bellows," or (8) "seemed to pause for
reflection."