126 FLAT-RACING EXPLAINED. 



pursuing a legitimate calling in a legitimate way. 

 The authors, the real authors, of the evil of betting, 

 as the moralists put it, however, are the tipsters, a 

 class of persons against whom the moralists never 

 utter a word of condemnation, and, hat in hand, by 

 their silence invite to go on and prosper. 



Why the righteous people who prosecuted Mr. 

 Dunn should righteously withhold prosecution from 

 "Mr. Tipster" has puzzled me very considerably. If 

 they could pride themselves in the former case on 

 being guided by reason, if not by wisdom, surely 

 they will have lapsed into supineness, if not some- 

 thing more to excite one's pity, should they not see 

 wisdom to guide them in the latter case. 



In my view, it has always been absurd to endeav- 

 or to associate the bookmaker with all the evils re- 

 sulting from imprudent betting. Betting is not il- 

 legal. In principle, as far as I have been able to 

 discover, it in no sense differs from that which has 

 founded the institution of insurance, whether the 

 process be by underwriting, on land or on sea, or 

 by policies guarding our lives while we live, or our 

 property from consumption by burglars or fire. Be- 

 sides, our chances of accident, in the events of our 

 lives, are soothed by the reflection that the odds of 

 about 300 to 1 are laid against our being killed out- 

 right; while damage to person, in language we are 



