THE SPORTING WORLD. 115 



a man's betting on the turf against that of 

 his taking up the dice-box ; he rarely bets so 

 heavily on any particular race as to ruin him- 

 self at once. He loses his thousand at one 

 meeting, wins his five hundred at the next ; 

 loses three or four hundred on such a race, 

 and wins his two on another event; true he 

 still loses, but by doing so he has timely 

 warning if he chooses to profit by it, if not 

 he is either a simpleton or an inveterate gam- 

 bler and better that nothing can save. A man, 

 we will say, bets on a race and loses his 

 money; the meeting over, the excitement is 

 over, and he has time to brood over his losses, 

 and, I should think, unpleasant recollections of 

 the event. But with the dice-box it is differ- 

 ent ; he loses ; there is the fatal instrument of 

 his losses at his hand courting his use of it ; 

 the hopes of retrieving what he has lost, and 

 with such temptation at hand I can readily 



believe it hard to resist ; he is tempted ; follows 

 h2 



