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MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. 



mended his friends and patrons to be sweet on No. 6 (Hercules),, 

 and "Wide-awake Jem" was all for something else. A gentleman 

 who took the trouble of getting tips from half a dozen of them, 

 found that no two of them agreed in any particular. What 

 information to make books upon ! 



" But what good," as our excellent friend Thackeray eloquently 

 asks, " ever came out of, or went into, a betting book ? If I could 

 be Caliph Omar for a week," says he, " I would pitch every one 

 of those despicable manuscripts into the flames ; from my-lord's, 

 who is ' in ' with Jack Snaffle's stable, and is overreaching worse- 

 informed rogues, and swindling green-horns, down to Sam's, the 

 butcher's boy, who books eighteen-penny odds in the tap-room, 

 and stands to win five-and-twenty bob." We say ditto to that, and 

 are not sure that we wouldn't hang a " leg " or a " list " man or 

 two into the bargain. 



Watchorn had a prophet of his own, one Enoch Wriggle, who, 

 having tried his hand unsuccessfully first at tailoring, next as an 

 accountant, then in the watercress, afterwards in the buy " 'at-box, 

 bonnet-box," and lastly in the stale lobster and periwinkle line, had 

 set up as an oracle on turf matters, forwarding the most accurate 

 and infallible information to flats in exchange for half-crowns, 

 heading his advertisements, " If it be a sin to covet honour, I am 

 the most offending soul alive ! " Enoch did a considerable stroke 

 of business, and couched his advice in such dubious terms, as 

 generally to be able to claim a victory whichever way the thing 

 went. So the " offending soul " prospered ; and from scarcely 

 having shoes to his feet, he very soon set up a gig. 



VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS. 



