HALF AN HOUR WITH A SPORTING PROPHET. 127 



' Why, no, sir, not as a rule ; they're too sharp there, and 

 many of the young gents' governors keeps racers. I was at 

 Oxford myself once, sir.' 



Seeing me look surprised, as he did not give one the idea of 

 a graduate, he added : ' Assisting a gentleman in the tobacco- 

 business, — leastways, he called it that ; but he made his money 

 by other things, and at last he carried on so, and got so unpar- 

 liamentary, that the dons dropped on to him, and he got dis- 

 commonsed, and had to reduce his establishment ; so I left. But 

 Cambridge is a different place altogether ; "the scums,'" as he 

 politely termed them, ' sends their sons there, " competitioners" 

 and "standards'" (what he meant by this last term I have not 

 any idea) ; ' and they lives in such holes and corners and up- 

 stairs where an Oxford gent would not keep his dog. But you 

 would be surprised, sir,' he went on, ' if you knew half the people 

 that writes to me for " tips." Lots of ladies writes too, not that 

 they write in their own names ; but I spots them at once, they 

 always wants a " certainty," and tries to alter their writing to 

 make it look big and round and man-like ; but they always for- 

 gets, and makes the first letter natural, and then tries to go on 

 big, but some of their peaky letters and long tails will drop in, 

 so I always twigs them ; and then they're so fond of promises. 

 Blessed if I don't think every sort but bishops comes to me.' 



Just at this point, another train coming in, he had to run off 

 to sell his race-cards ; so his revelations came to an end. But 

 the conversation was literally and exactly as I have stated it, 

 and I can say in corroboration of the man's description of the 

 way he worked his ' permitations' and combinations,' as they 

 had been termed, that, seeing amongst the telegrams two 

 addressed to persons that I knew, I took the trouble to make 

 inquiries of them, and as I was in possession of the secret, dis- 

 covered at once that the plan was worked as the man told me. 



Now this story is literally true, the only exception being that 

 I have altered the pseudonyms that the man used. As may be 

 imagined, I was greatly amused at these candid revelations. Of 

 course I knew that * tips' werg the utterest humbug ; but had 

 thought that they came from stable-boys or odd men about the 

 racing-stables who tried to add to their wages by this means, 

 and had no idea that they were merely the offspring of the brain 

 of an unscrupulous vagabond. 



