296 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



in the market, which long, id est, Hberal odds, the 

 bookmaker might not obtain if he himself were to 

 ask for them. 



Bookmakers are somewhat fond of working 

 their commissions by the aid of persons who are 

 known as " mugs," that is, persons who are 

 presumably greenhorns ; but the mugs have to 

 be frequently changed, as they are soon spotted 

 by the shrewd persons they try to "have." No 

 kind of dirty work is too bad for the mercenaries 

 of the turf, some of whom if the reward were 

 sufficiently tempting would think nothing of 

 " nobbling " the finest animal that ever ran. So 

 that he can make money out of his stud, the 

 mercenary owner will either run or pull. No 

 man knows better than he does that " losing a 

 race can be made a certainty," and that in many 

 instances larger sums of money can be made by 

 keeping a horse in the stable than by running 

 it on the racecourse. 



The knavery of the turf is so ramified that it 

 is very difficult to tell either where it begins or 

 ends. The telegraphic wires, as all owners of race- 

 horses, bookmakers, and bettors are aware, are 

 now extensively used for the communication of 

 turf information. In towns where there is a great 

 deal of betting, and in consequence several book- 

 makers, receiving from half-a-dozen to twenty 

 messages every day, denoting changes in the 

 betting or other occurrences during the progress 

 of a race meeting, the telegraph clerks have been 

 known to be so tampered with that information 

 of an important kind meant only for one person 

 has been made public. It is said that in some of 

 our large towns the telegraph clerks have become 



