LORD DEWAR

Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1929, Page 8

LORD DEWAR

A LAUGHTER SPEECH. ' LONDON, November 23. , Lore! Dewar at tlie annual dinner of tlie Gimcraek Club at York last night delivered one of his characteristically witty speeches. As lie made point after point in quick succession his hearers roared with laughter. The dinner is held each year to perpetuate the memory of a famous racehorse and founder of a great line off horses, and the principal guest—on this occasion Lord Dewar—is the year’s winner of the Gimcraclc Stakes. Lord Dewar said: “ 1 have an idea the ‘ tote ’ will not he universally heralded to our racecourses upon a tidal wave of enthusiasm. A wave of pessimism always accompanies the birth of great truths—tlio same might he said about twins, We ere the most conservative people in the world. Conservatism is just a determination to hold your present place close to the-manger. “Let us wait with patience, cheerfulness, and expectation. Patience is the greatest of all shock absorbers. The only thing you can get in a hurry i.' tuuhle. “ Let us have an open mind on this question—minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open. The “ tote ” will bring things home to you that you have never seen before—as your laundrymau sometimes does. If you want credit from the “ tote ” you will find it is colder than a banker’s heart. “The - tote’ will disillusion the illusions of the sceptics and - will passlrom the fields of promise in the places oi achievement. Tt lias come to stay with us. “ Gambling has gone on down tlie centuries, ever since the day Moses dropped the slates and broke the Ten Commandments. We all endeavour to keep the Ten Commandments —those who know anything about them. Me have been making laws for a thousand years, hut we have done nothing to equal the Ten Commandments. “ Hie two great failings in civilisation are snobbery and hypocrisy—-hypo-crisy is worse than wickedness itself. To-day hypocrisy has been killed so far as betting on racecourses is concerned. “With the “tote” silently registering without fault or favour, the welsher and the Derby dog will pass into history, am' our racecourses will he vacuum-cleaned of a hot-bed of other undesirables with speckled reputations. More reputable honest conditions will exist m the environment of facing and the honest bookmaker will rejoice more than many others when that day comes. “Experience is wliat you get when you are. looking for something else. “The man who says lie never makes a mistake probably doesn’t know one when he sees it. We all make mistakes;- that is wlfy you find bumpers on the end of motor-ears and rubber on the ends of pencils. Experience is the name most men give to their mistakes. “Years ago it was a motor-car thatfrightened nlmrse, but te.mpora nvutantur. now it is another horse. “ Someone stated in the Pi ess leccntly that gambling was immoral because it was getting money for nothing. The last hot 1 had was on my own horse in the Derby. Tn that case 1 gave money for nothing. An owner could not be classed as a gambler by having a small hot on his own horse by the Derby, because 1 know lie could get absolution from the Elders of the Scottish Presbyterian Kirk. They consider that no sin. . . A Scotch lady asked her minister•: 1 Would it he a sin if I felt pleased if a crentleman called me pretty f ,e minister looked up and down at the somewhat homely looking example oi womanhood and said: ‘No sin could he imputed to you. hut a grave responsibility would rest with the gentlerna n.’ “ SURE ” BUT UNCERTAIN. “Nothing is certain in racing except its uncertainty, and there is nothing so uncertain as a sure thing. ><> ">le can endure a gambling husband unless ho is a steady winner. “ Disappointment is the ollspring of expectation. Your two-year-old may be a hero, and, as a three-year-old, a zero. On the Tuuf nothing so rapidly recedes as success. “ l„ racing stables the trainer gives the horse a carrot at the end of the day. That is more than some owners get at the end of the season. Some men do not wake up and find they have won a classic race : they dream they have won one. then wake up. 11 only way to make dreams come true is to wake up. . .. “ ft is more blessed to give than to lend, and it costs about the same.” Sir Charles Hydro, proposing the toast of the -Jockey Club, said: “ To-night we can say all is well with racing. “Those Dismal Desmonds who told us last spring that dirt tracks and clirtv dogs would take the P ace oi horse-racing can eat their word! Ihe bookmakers who said they would he ruined never made anybody weep! “Racing will always go on, and when we hat - recovered from the turmoil of the past years racing will flourish exceedingly.”