232 



The Review of Reviews. 



Stptmtber I, ISOS, 



Another \-iew. showine how the ' Tote fort isj protecteJ 

 by high walls. 



of the Collingwood Napoleon's gam- 

 bling operations, which extend into 

 every section of the city. Every 

 suburb contains his agents, usuallv 

 found in hotels and tobacconists's 

 shops, with whom a foolish public 

 transacts illegal business almost in 

 the same way in which it " marks 

 tickets " in a large number of out- 

 wardly respectable Chinese shops m 

 Little Bourke-street. Wren's system 

 is not unlike that of the Chinese lot- 

 tery. There are branches every- 

 where, so that gamblers are afforded 

 every facility to lose their money, 

 and almost anybody can do business 

 with these agents ; but the head- 

 quarters of the organisation, the 

 " bank," is kept as secretive as pos- 

 sible, and open only to " friends. ' 



Wren's "shop" is usually ap- 

 proached by the back way, which, for 

 practical purposes, is the entrance. 

 Opposite the Baptist Tabernacle. 

 in Sackville-street, runs a row of 

 wooden, single-fronted cottages, with 



their verandahs stretching out to the pavement. 

 There are no gardens, and they look as mean and 

 sordid as possible. A dozen or so of as evil-looking 

 ruffians as could be found in the city of Melbourne 

 patrol the avenues of approach, some at the corners 

 and others at the gates of the cottages. The^trusted 

 client nods to the " Push " and enters to a wocd- 

 yard. Here he is confronted by a lo ft. smoke- 

 blackened fence, surmounted by barbed wire, to 

 prevent any possibility of adventurous scaling. 

 There is one gate carefully guarded by a dangerous- 

 looking Cerberus, who scrutinises all comers, and 

 blocks out anyone who appears at all suspicious. 

 But our client is known, so he passes into the 

 asphalt yard, where he meets his friends and studies 

 the race card before putting on his money. Round 

 this inner yard runs a dingy, rambling wooden 

 building, fronted by a verandah. Beyond this veran- 

 dah no client passes. He has no means of obtain- 

 ing entrance to the building itself, for it contains 

 no front door, or, indeed, any door at all. The offi- 

 cials enter through a secret passage of their own. 

 The customer has to wait outside in the yard. When 

 he has selected his " fancy " he hands his money 

 through one of the small ticket boxes, behind which 

 the clerks, completely masked, receive money and 

 ' issue tickets. There are two rooms in this building, 

 one where the clerks stand between their ticket boxes 

 and the second, opening into this room by a door. 

 . which is the " office." the " bank '" and general inner 

 sanctum of Wren's far-reaching gambling opera- 

 jtions. In the clerk's room there is an ingenious trap 

 door, not actually in the floor, but only reaching 

 about a foot above it, through which the officials 



View showing the barriomling through which the betting is done. 



