Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1879 — The Leviathan of the Turf. [ARTICLE]

The Leviathan of the Turf.

Exchange. Davis, the leviathan, as he needs to be called, is, or rather was, a man unknown to the preseut generation. About a quarter of a eentury ago his enormous “books” on every important race were the .talk of the town. He used to stand at a desk in a publichouse in an alley off Fleet street and to take deposits of money for bets against cards that he issued. On the Derby of 1852 he was said to have taken in this way above £IOO,OOO. His word was his bond, and he was a thoroughly upright and conscientious man. He paid away a colossal sum at one meeting. There was little of the flash sporting man about him, for he was most quiet and unassuming. Twenty-two years ago he met with an accident owing to a race stand giving way, and he was placed under care of a medical gentle- ‘ men, with whom he ever after resided. He soon became paralyzed from his neck downwards, and was confined to his couch. During all these years he declined to see any. of his old friends, although they frequently called on him, and he lived entirely in the society of his wife and of his medical adviser Although originally an uneducated man, he had become a great reader. He died on Saturday, October 4, aged sixty-one, and the evening before as was put to bed he said to his servant: “Thomas, the event comes off tonight.” He left a large fortune and after providing for his wife bequeathed considerable sums to hospitals.