188 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



copper in the North and silver in the South/' which 

 is, [being interpreted, the Northern card publishers 

 will let them buy one or two cards, as the case may 

 be ; whereas, in the South, they must either buy half 

 a-dozen or a dozen, if they want to be served. 

 Several of them have regular customers whom they 

 supply either at their lodgings or in the street. Of 

 such cards they profess to keep no account, but trust 

 to their patrons' liberality when the meeting is over. 

 The telegraph has quite knocked up both the entry 

 and return-list trade, and not one-twentieth part of 

 the number are sold now. In fact, there is a very 

 slow sale for the latter, except for a few minutes at 

 the close of the afternoon's sport. About 25,000 

 cards are sold during the Doncaster race week, 15,000 

 of which are disposed of on the St. Leger day; 

 whereas on the Derby day 20,000 is the " sum-tottel." 

 At Manchester the sale is enormous, and said to 

 average 15,000 a day; and at York about 10,000 

 are sold on the Handicap day, and 8,000 on each of 

 the other days. Very few cards are disposed of at 

 Newcastle, as Benson's " Flying Sheet," which has 

 the colours annexed, beats everything out of the field. 

 Fair Helen, and three or four other women, are far 

 the most successful at present; but the profits of 

 each during a fine Ascot meeting seldom on the ave- 

 rage exceed 20, or fall below 3. Even the cool- 

 headed Lord George Bentinck is known to have flung 

 down a sovereign for a card ; and by such little coup 

 de mains as laying in wait for the winner of a great 

 race, either on the course or at Tattersall's, and pop- 

 ping in a well-timed allusion to his triumph, many a 

 half-sovereign has been extracted, especially by " the 

 fayre ladyes " of the fraternity. There is a good deal 

 of kind feeling, to boot, among them ; and if one of 

 them gets into trouble, and arrives at a race-town 

 without any capital, they will club together and lend 

 him some ; but woe betide the unhappy wight who. 



