CHAPTER XIV 



LAYERS OF ALL SORTS 



Bookmakers' Methods — Those we bet with — Backing a Treble — 

 Raking it in — SUding the Aces — A Prize Mug — A Bout at Pyramids 



With regard to members of the ring in Australia I 

 have spoken about the Thompsons, Joe Marks and 

 others. There was a great difference in the methods 

 of many members of Tattersalls in Sydney and the 

 Victoria Club in Melbourne. It was a simple pleasure 

 having a wager with some, but we always knew there 

 would be a win, tie or a wrangle with others. One of 

 the most delightful men to do business with was poor 

 Harry Haines. He would have winning sums done 

 up in a little packet of notes with an elastic band 

 round the lot. " I owe you fifty," he would say, 

 handing over the little packet of ready, and add: 

 " Thank you very much. Now I will have a glass of 

 porter with you " — stout was always known as porter 

 in my days. Another member of the Victoria 

 Club in Melbourne would almost throw the money 

 at us, saying : " It's lucky I can pay you." He 

 would refuse a drink and even a cigar. 



There was one man in Sydney who used to bet on the 

 outskirts of the racecourse or in the cheap ring. He 

 would work for some months at his own graft — he was a 

 blacksmith — until he had put together about forty or 

 fifty pounds. Then he would come into Sydney, give it a 

 chance with the box or at cards ; if it turned up right for 

 him he would go about and make a book and live on the 

 best till he got knocked for the whole of his bank-roll, 



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