70 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



corduroys, and got some " friend" (who, first by per- 

 suasion, and then by bullying, tried to make her be- 

 lieve he was to "stand in") to give a hint of what it 

 meant. To show the hold that this epidemic took 

 on the lower classes, we have heard that a poor man, 

 when he was asked for his child's name at the font, 

 gave the minister by mistake a betting ticket with 

 " Springy Jack" on it ; and a Yorkshire gamekeeper 

 showed us, in that very year (1848), three tickets on 

 which he had expended three guineas for the St. 

 Leger alone ! He had withstood three poachers, 

 and fought with his teeth when they disabled his 

 arms ; but the list lure was too strong for Sampson, 

 and his wife seemed equally infatuated on the point. 

 The system had become so complete by the exten- 

 sion of the telegraph wires to the race-course, that 

 owners could be backing their horses in London and 

 the enclosure at the same time. A great Northern 

 trainer had, in fact, two horses, each in two races at 

 York, on one afternoon ; and about twenty minutes 

 before the first came off, he received a telegraphic 

 message, which showed him that his town commis- 

 sioner had backed the wrong horse very largely for 

 that race, and he had only just time to get the 

 other from the stable and send it to the post. The 

 list-houses still do a strong business ; and certainly, 

 as long as they do not take deposits (?j, they have 

 quite as much right to pursue their calling as Tatter- 

 salFs, where, under this new act, no one can be called 

 on to " cover." Albeit the bill of 1853 has done its 

 work, and the fatal facility induced by the open de- 

 posit system is nipped in the bud. Inspector Brennan 

 and his cohorts no longer produce piles of betting 

 tickets as the sad results of their station-house search, 

 and those who merely regard the turf as a pleasant 

 pastime on an occasional holiday afternoon, are spared 

 the shame of hearing that another poor fellow has had 

 to rue the day he ever saw or read of it amid the 

 mint and rue of the Old Bailey. 



