256 RACING. 



miraculous but short-lived run of luck. Rari nantes, they soon 

 disappear in the vast whirlpool, and scant mercy do they re- 

 ceive at the hands of the usually long-suffering bookmakers. 

 They are the subject of a Monday's lamentation and are heard 

 of no more, unless indeed the meteoric passage across the 

 racing firmament has been of sufficient brilliancy to justify a hope 

 that the memory thereof may be resuscitated, in which case 

 after many days may appear an advertisement to the effect that 

 'Jones the defaulter- issues his unrivalled falsehoods to an ever- 

 increasing circle of Jugginses,' or some such pithy and alluring 

 appeal for alms. 



The casual settler, the backer whom an easy-going ring 

 allow to get heavily in arrear with his payments, is the most 

 helpless case of all. He belongs to the ' lost legion ' con- 

 tinually struggling against overwhelming odds (or the want of 

 odds). Usually a man of some social position, he is either 

 credited with means which he does not possess, or with expec- 

 tations which are purely imaginary ; hence the leniency with 

 which he is treated, and which more than anything else con- 

 duces to his ultimate relegation to that mysterious bourne, the 

 Fiddler's Green of the Turf, known as ' outside.' He may, and 

 he generally does, pay away considerable sums of money during 

 the course of the year, but he is never quits with his creditors, 

 there is always a bit owing. Strange, even paradoxical, as it 

 may appear, the ring look upon him from their point of view 

 as a lucrative customer. Said a veteran bookmaker to a veteran 

 backer, ' Of course, sir, we like to bet with you, because you've 

 been about so many years and you're an old friend, but you're 

 no real good to us.' 'Why not?' inquired the astonished 

 turfite, conscious of an income sorely diminished by his love 

 of speculation. ' Because, sir, your account is always there on 

 Monday, and as you pay regularly, so you will have the top 

 o' the odds such as they are, and then you can win sometimes. 

 Now, sir, we like the gentlemen that let it stand over ; they 

 generally pay, or pay most of it in the long run, though of 

 course we make a lot of bad debts ; but then they can't win, for 



