TOUTS AND TIPSTERS. 



Many interested in horse-racing, especially those who 

 have been studying it for a period of twenty-five or 

 thirty years, will remember that the sporting papers, 

 about the time indicated, contained announcements 

 from sundry persons anxious to foretell the winner of 

 the Derby. The number of tipsters ottering informa- 

 tion was so large as to render it evident that the busi- 

 ness was a paying one : all sorts of people put on the 

 mantle of prophecy for a few weeks previous to the 

 day set for the decision of the race, and, no matter 

 that the majority of them proved false prophets, the 

 tips they gave were greedily purchased, eagerly 

 scanned, and frequently acted upon — to the gain of 

 the tipster and the almost certain loss of his victims. 

 Most of those who engaged in the business were, very 

 likely, persons who knew nothing about the Derby 

 horses, but \.ere possessed of sufficient knowledge of 

 the world, and of the fools who live in it, to be able to 

 prey upon tliem with good effect. 



Ujion the occasion of a criminal trial some twenty- 

 five years ago, it was elicited in evidence that a man 

 who had been blind for the previous ten years had 

 been acting (on paper) as a Derby tout and prophet. 



