196 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



(or supposed to be known) by every one going 

 to him what those odds publicly were. If those 

 he offered to give were less, the man going to 

 his office was not obliged or asked to accept 

 them. There was no hocus-pocus, underhand 

 dealing there. There was no occasion for even 

 a word being spoken. There stood the odds 

 against each horse, legibly written on a form 

 in his office. If those were not approved of 

 you had only to walk out, not a word was 

 said to induce you to stop. If on the contrary 

 they met your views you had only to pay your 

 ten shillings more or less, and get your ticket 

 entitling you to a certain sum if the horse or 

 one of the horses you selected won. 



Thus, so far as general transactions went, 

 nothing could be fairer. How far the betting- 

 list keeper may have been accessory to inducing 

 certain persons to trust to chance, as a 

 pleasanter mode of making money, (or hoping 

 to make it) than trusting to labour for the 



