228 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



if they can get at either; so do the betting 

 men by some manoeuvre or other influence the 

 winning or losing of the horse or man if thfy 

 can get at either. 



I grant it is poor encouragement to a man 

 to support a pedestrian if after having paid the 

 expenses of a man's support and training, 

 having matched him either against another or 

 against time, either of which he knows he can 

 win, he finds himself "thrown over." This I 

 am sorry to say has been too often found to 

 be the case ; the man is an unprincipled fellow 

 no doubt, but less so than the scoundrel who 

 tempts him. Runners and pedestrians are 

 mostly poor, earning a precarious living, 

 feasting for one month and starving the next; 

 it can therefore be matter of no surprise that 

 they are open to temptation. If we could by 

 any possibility do away with the receivers of 

 stolen property we should have few thieves; if 

 we could, in like manner, do away with these 



