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Turf characters: the officials, and the subalterns, by Martingale
Turf characters the officials and the subalterns by Martingale Author:James White Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE BETTING MAN. If the late Sir Robert Peel, in speaking of the decisions of the two Houses of Parliament, was justified in using the term "the lottery of le... more »gislation," the same term may be safely applied with regard to racing generally, and to betting in particular. The betting-ring, like all other arenas of speculation, the mart of Exchange, the public securities, railway-stock and shares, insurances of all descriptions, foreign produce, navigation, trade, manufactures, and commerce, are liable to fluctuations,—to good fortune and bad luck,—to brilliant success in some instances, and inevitable ruin in others. It is of little use saying what even the Quarterly Review has said respecting public racing, or rather betting men;—how a small retail tradesman, dealing in a very perishable commodity, became our modern Croesus in a few years, and proprietor of several of the finest houses in England;—how the champion of the boxing ring is the champion of the turf, the proprietor of a noble domain, all in the person of a Bristol butcher;—how a great proprietor of coal-mines became the owner of the best stud in England, one who gives three thousand guineas for a horse, in the comely form of a Yorkshire footman;—how a quondam Oxford livery-stable keeper has more than a dozen race-horses in his stalls, and those of the very best stamp, and such as few country gentlemen have a chance to contend with;—how the son of the ostler of the Black Swan at York, bets his thousands on the heath, with his neckerchief secured by a diamond pin ! In all professions and trades,—the bar, the pulpit, and the senate,—in art, science, and literature,—some of the brightest characters (a circumstance peculiar to England perhaps) have sprung from the lowest ranks of society, and astonished the world by the b...« less