341 



want is to see the best horse win, and that after a good race, each horse 

 having been ridden out in artistic style. 



Among some peoMle it is at times the habit to speak of bookmakers 

 in a hard and disparaging manner. To best a bookie is considered a 

 fair game by a gre^t many men ; to send him an excuse on a 

 settling day for n<jt piying punctually what is owed him is by no 

 means unusual, while the bad debts in the books of most pencillers 

 total a large amount, and among the list are to be found the names of 

 men of noble as well as gentle birth. 



Although never a bettiog man I have, all my lifp, associated with 

 men who bet, and that heavily. From my observation I am led to the 

 ■decided opinion that a bookmaker to start fair with his clientele must 

 at all times keep his weather eye open. The backer strives to get 6 

 to 4 the best of the layer, and it behoves the lat.er to see that the 

 object be not attaiaed. Among the "fraternity" are to be found men, 

 if not as cultured in manners or as well bred, quite as honourable, fine 

 principled, and geoerous as ?.re to be found among the classes they lay 

 the odds to ; whil ^ among the first and second class bookmakers an 

 account is never left for a day unsettled. I am of opinion that the 

 members of Tattersali's are as a body quite as honourable in their 

 dealings as are the members of the Stock Exchang-:} or the Law, the 

 Banking or Insurance Societies, aye, or of any other commercial 

 community. 



By the way, has it struck any of my readers that insurance 

 companies aie, to all intents and purposes, bookmakers 1 They lay the 

 odds against a man dying or having his property burned. Those who 

 insure simply back themselves to die or their property to be tired 

 within a given period. Furthermore, if a risk upon any given life or 

 property be consid^-red too great — in other wordn, that the insurance 

 company has laid too heavily against it — it will cover itself with 

 other companies precisely as bookmakers lay-oft" or hedge their bets 

 upon too heavily laid horses. 



Among the directorate and managers of various insurance companies 

 I have many old and valued friends, some of whom look up'U betting 

 in quite as bad a light as I do, so I tiust their feelings may not be 

 hurt by the simile I have just drawn. However, if they analyse the 

 vocation of the bookmaker and compare it with their own they cannot fail 

 to see that I am right. What is "Lloyds" to the s-a bat as "'TattersalFs" 

 to the Turf 1 Are not the Sun, the Scottish Widows, and the Globe of 

 assurance the Silk, Kavanagh, and O'Connor of the King ? 



We see every day of our lives great men falling, .small men rising. 

 The gulf which twenty years ago separated the aristocracy from the 

 middle classes has now become but a stream. Aye, a stream which in 

 many places can be stepped across. 



The lower classes are acquiring through advanced education exalted 

 ideas, and having acquired wages for their labour which their grand- 

 fathers never dreamt of are fast raising themselves to the level of the 



