192 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



that there may be two hundred bookmakers for 

 each milHon of the population congregated in the 

 great cities and larger towns of the kingdom, 

 which for London alone would give more than one 

 thousand layers of the odds, whilst Manchester, 

 Liverpool, Bradford, Leeds, and Birmingham, 

 will undoubtedly have a number correspondent 

 to their population. " Here, every one bets," 

 said a London club steward one evening to the 

 WTiter, whilst busy entering names for the annual 

 Derby sweep, "every one from the City to the 

 West End ; the cabman who brought you from 

 the railway station, the porter who took your hat, 

 the man who sold you that copy of the special 

 Standard, all bet, and in hundreds of our public- 

 houses and tobacconists' shops you can find a 

 bookmaker if you want him." 



A glance at what takes place in large cities 

 and big provincial towns every day, but more 

 particularly on days set apart for the decision 

 of important races, shows hundreds of people 

 rushing about to interchange their tips and 

 opinions and to learn what is being done. On 

 such days telegraphic messages rain into the 

 more important clubs, of which there are from 

 six to twenty in each of the towns named, and 

 in these places from three to thirty bookmakers 

 will be found ready to bet with all comers. 



In these clubs may be seen groups of bettors 

 each with an eye on "the tape," which winds out 

 its automatic lists of the running horses, their 

 jockeys, and the odds at which they are being 

 backed in the ring, followed in due course by 

 the name of the winning and placed horses and 

 tha important item of information, the *' starting 



