The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-18 00:00:00

Welchers and their Victims.

The faeetious correspondent of the Racing Times
writes on the above subject as follows :

large and undue amount of public
attention. What-
The late welching case at Epsom has attracted a '
aver were the antecedents of the fellow Hartley or ,
Hargreaves, the excited backers took the wrong
remedy. It was impossible to know what would be
the result, and, like otherpanics, might have proved
groundless, but, looking at the whole affair with
the unprejudiced eye of an impartial historian, it
is out of the question to justify such an outrage as
one person thrusting his hands into the pockets of
another and forcibly seizing all that could be laid
hold of. Supposing a party who had deposited in
so loose a concern, say a couple of sovereigns, had
seized and ran away with twenty times the amount,
what could have been urged in extenuation of such
an act ? However great a scoundrel the welcher
might have proved, and however good the welcher's
intentions„ such acts must not be tolerated in a
country like our own. I have been led into
these few remarks on the receipt of letters
from well-meaning parties protesting against the
injustice of the sentence awarded, which, though
slight in its nature, was heavy and degrading to the
recipient. The sting was taken away by omitting
labour usually affixed on such occasions, and the
judgment no doubt emanated from the magistrate
who intended to make the temporary detention as
pleasant as possible. Sir George Grey, on being
appealed to, thought the case was a fit one for a
free pardon, so that the inconvenience was only
temporary, and the sympathies of friends and well-
wishers will effectually heal the wound.
After all that has been continually urged against
such practices as breaking faith, how simple the
remedy is. There are well-known and long-estab-
lished persons pursuing betting as a profession, who
receive and pay with unerring certainty many tens
of thousands of pounds yearly, and who are to be
found at certain places from Knightsbridge, in the
far west, to Whitechapel, eastward ; the favourite
spot being the City proper. With those gentlemen
communications may be made "by letter only," but
they are not above personally receiving current coin
from anybody. Why, then, should not the race
of welchers be permitted to retire from the scene for
want of patronage ; but, I regret to find, from ex-
perience, that fools continue to crop up in every
walk of life. They arrive by all sorts of vehicles
from all kinds of places in the morning. They are
pounced upon by, and yield to, the most shallow
artifices of patent and palpable duffers, whose
schemes any reasonably sharp lad of ten years of
age would see through, and frustrate without hesi-
tation. A welcher has recently been secured for
advertising to lend money
to anybody without
security, provided the borrower's respectability
could he made apparent to his private travelling
agent, but-no inquiry fees nor any preliminary or
contingent expenses were to be incurred. Six per
cent. was the figure ; and, considering that the Old
Lady of Threadneedle-street is now charging ten
for first-class paper, nobody would grumble at the
former sum, especially as the repayment of the loan
was to extend over the period of five years. The
obliging familiarity of an entire stranger was amus-
ing. His first letter in reply to this borrower com-
menced "My dear Sir," and ended " yours very
truly." The " travelling agent" next made a spe-
cial journey into the country, and in the strictest
• honour and secrecy reported the borrower to be a
first-class personage,
so that a forged bill stamp
was sent down with a request to accept and remit
£6 10s. to him, one years' interest payable in ad-
vance, and postage stamp, &c., of course. The
victim sent Post-office order, but as to the remit-
tance of the hundred it stood over for further
consideration. The police in charge of the case