Ahout Betting and GamhUng. 8D 



and who know the stud book by heart and pedigrees of" 

 horses. They talk, and talk well and authoritatively, 

 too, about the Sweetmeat and Whalabone and Stockwell 

 strain (I think that is the word), and know all the handicaps 

 and weights. Now these men go ocsxsionally to a race 

 and see the horses gallop, and like to take theii' fancy 

 and back a horse for five, or ten, or twenty, or even fifty 

 or a hundred pounds, according to their means. They 

 have the keenest enjoyment in the sport itself, because they 

 know it and understand it, and see the horse stripped and 

 saddled and galloped ; and if they win great is their joy, 

 and if they lose they have had a run for their money any- 

 how, and no harm is done. The saints and parliament have 

 nothing to do with men of this kind. The " saints" play a 

 game of speculation for livings, and deaneries, and place ; 

 and the lover of racing plays a game of speculation for 

 honest amusement, and wins one day and loses another with 

 even temper. The betting lists have demoralised England, 

 and army, navy, bar, trades and professions, and all their 

 adherents and hangers-on must bet about horses of which 

 they know positively nothing. It is a greed for making 

 money without working for it, and ignoring the good old 

 principle of earning one's bread by the sweat of brow or 

 brain. What on earth has the working man— that grumbling, 

 querulous humbug —to do with betting on horse racing ? 

 But he does bet no end very often, whilst we pay for his 

 children's education, and he is crying out for want of work. 

 Horse-racing in its purity is one of the noblest sports in 

 the world. Although I know nothing about the arcana of 

 the science, I can read " Post and Paddock," and " Scott 

 and Sebright," and Nimrod's ''Turf, Chase, and Road" 

 ao-ain and again. They are so fresh and pleasant, and 

 written by men who loved sport for sport's sake. Racing 

 is so fascinating, and the real followers of it are often so 



