BOOKMAKING. 171 



there must Le a vast number of bookmakers at work. 

 At Epsom Summer Meeting, at Royal Ascot, and at 

 Goodwood, the paddocks seem as crowded with these 

 busybodies as with the pubhc. At Doncaster during 

 a meeting a curious inquirer was able to count over 

 seven hundred industrious pencillers inside and out- 

 side the various rin^s, a considerable number of whom 

 Avere no doubt ' welshers ' or thieves. As a rule, the 

 professional bookmaker is an industrious, hard-working 

 person. There is now such a plethora of meetings, 

 and so much business to be got through on each day, 

 that it may be said without exaggeration that he lias 

 to work every day of the year. When not engaged in 

 shoutinsf and noting' the odds on the race-course, he is 

 either travelling to the next meeting or engaged in 

 making up his accounts or carrying on his correspon- 

 dence. 



Bookmakers have favourite circuits to which they 

 adhere ; some never go north of Trent, others never 

 venture south of that river; not a few, however, go 

 everywhere, and are to be found in the paddock at 

 most of the important meetings of the season, from 

 Lincoln Spring to Manchester Autumn, and then they 

 begin a round of steeplechasing, which carries them 

 irom the end of November to the beginning of March. 

 Besides the men who devote themselves to the busi- 

 ness all the 3'ear round, there are not a few who carry 

 on book- making b}' fits and starts, small tradesmen 

 and others who, combining business with pleasure, 

 mMko a book at some favourite racing resort, and thus 

 see the races for nothing, and sometimes make a little 

 money in addition. 



