OLD THEATRICAL FRIENDS 



go on. There have been so many of them and they 

 try so hard to attract chents. I have often wondered 

 why they don't go the whole hog and have a " wheel " 

 (roulette) ; this game is so fascinating that I believe, 

 really, that even the hired butlers who come with the 

 " prog " (provisions) would let one of the gentlemen 

 who had been financed to " make up the game " off 

 his tip to take the combined bank-roll of the servants 

 to stake on a column or number. Still they meander 

 on, and frequent all sorts of places where there is 

 something to be picked up. 



The " proprietors " all know the regulars, and when 

 they are about or in town. They think they know 

 the strength, but many have looked down their noses 

 the next morning when a review of who would make 

 good and who would not was inevitable. It doesn't 

 always pan out all bunce. 



I have never been a good gambler, and have never 

 affected these points from simple get-rich-quick 

 motives. This can perhaps get a chalk to my virtues. 

 At some of the smaller resorts the " assistance " has 

 been remarkable. Silly people with but very little 

 money ; in some cases the place was run by a woman, 

 and the hospitality consequently meagre. I could 

 never understand serious men going in and dropping 

 a monkey when they had such a glorious prospect 

 for a week's racing on the same sum. But many 

 haven't the time for racing : I suppose that^s it. 



One evening at a well-known resort a son of a peer 

 won six thousand pounds and dropped eight thousand 

 pounds afterwards, and yet he could finance a news- 

 paper enterprise to the extent of ten thousand pounds ; 

 think of it, boys. Another, a rider, won four thousand 

 pounds and then did in six thousand pounds above 

 this and paid. I ask you, isn't it enough to make 



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