Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-08
AN ENGLISH sAlETURNALIA.
The Derby as viewed by AN English
1. .'lU HI II Spectator -H.T o.. I..F5I

The Derby as Viewed by AN English
T.. ..lQ HI lI Spectator H.y l. l..Hgl
#uI [From the London SPECTATOR o.
Itmay be doubted whether our national
repugnance to describe things exactly as
they are tends to promote or discourage
morality. In France they are certainly
more outspoken than we are, but tthent they
are certainly less moral. On the whole, we
do not believe English life would be whit
the purer, but the contrary, If any writer
were to photograph in words the Haymar-
ket as it is at night, or to paint Derby
Day in realistic language, There are q
good many things in this world about which,
perhaps, on the whole, the less said the bet
ter; and we are glad the time has not come
when such contributions as NJ Adrian
Marx sends to the Paris EUenenaeRt would
be published IN the co umns OF any respect
able English paper. But still, though 1t IS
all very well not TO allude to certain SUBJ
iects, it is iOnli>n 10 assume their non-eXis-
tence; and tue fictions which are based on
these assumptions are singdlarly distaste-
full to thinking men. For Instance, II is
sort of received article of faith in our public
prints that the Derby is great national
hOliday-somewhat rough perhaps, and
boisterous in its amusements, tut stlll, on
the whole, well conducted and respeota-
bic festival. Now, as matter Offaet, every
man of tue world knows that this, il not abb
solutely untrue, is utterly unlike the truth.
In plain English, the Derby is nothing
more nor less than the drawing day
of great annual lottery. 1t is tall
very well to talk about the thou
sands who 90 down to EPSON
being attracted by the love of day out in
the country, or the beauty of the scene, or
the grandeur of the spectacle, or the gayety
of the revel. One in ahundred may be in
lluenced by considerations of this kind, but
the other ninety-nine would never dream
of taking the trouble of the journey ii they
were not pecuniarily interested in the re-
sultOf the race. The amountof money that
must change hands each anniversary of tue
great race is absolutely incalculable. The
losings and winnings of the great men on
the turf, the frequenters of the Grand
Stand, and the occupants OF the front row
of carriages opposite, may be guessed at
perhaps accurately enough by those who
are behind the scenes of the sporting world.
| But Just rs the owners of the German gam
| ing tables declare that their takings from
the odd thalers and gulden of little specu-
lators are infinitely greater than those they
| get from the notes and rouleauX of Million
aries, so we suspect the great bulk of the
| sums invested on the issue of the Derby is
derived from bets varying from one shil-
| ling to a pound. Middle-cass ladies and
gentlemen have probably very little notion
| how low down the passion for gambling on
! the Derby is found amongst Euglisbmen.
| You may be pretty certain that every cab
man who has driven you for the last month,
every man servant who waited upon you,
every pOstman, policeman, porter you
met, every crOssing-sweeper to whom you
gave penny, had a stake upon the race,
| -, httf Inn In,
portion to his means. There is not pub
| lie house in anv town in England, and
very few in the most secluded rural dis
tricts, which has not had its Derby sweep"
Betting offices have happily been done
away with, though with more regard to
substantial justice than to logical equity,
| but still there are infinite facilities for in
vesting the smallest sums upon the
race. Betting for the million is still con-
Quoted on the varied terms.
Within the last few years practice has
sprung up upon the turf which, as far as
our recollection goes, is an Innovation
At all the great races, as for instance, at
EPSON, on Wednesday last, innumerable
booths are run up which are obviously
mere betting stands. A written list stuck
up in front of the booth informs you what
odds the owners are ready to lay against
any particular horses in the race. And all
you have to do is to pay your money across
| the counter; for that you receive ticket,
and il your horse wins you are supposed to
receive your winnings Immediately after
the race is wonI A more broken-down,
disreputable, MISUNDERSTANDING set of cap
italists than the proprietOrs of these booths
it is difficult to conceive. But still, as a
rule, we believe, they pay their way. II
well conducted their business ought to be a
| profitable one, as they always give consid-
erably shorter odds than those offered in
the ring; they can generally make them
selves safe, if they choose, against any
contingency; and, moreover Lilliputian
hackers, who want to win good stake
with verv little money, have fatal fancy
for backing impossible horses, which never
could win except by miracle. Moreover,
these plebeian betting men are subject to
the rudest of lynch law in case they prove
defaulters. On Wednesday, one of these
gentry was discovered in the act OF "welch-
ing" that is, of receiving money before a
race on bet and not paying the odds when
he lost. Forthwith a sort of drum-head
court-martial was held by the bystanders,
and the offender was sentenced to be lynch
ed. His booth was torn down and literally
broken into bits like the vessel of bank
rupt Venetian merchant, his clothes were
TORN OH MS UdCk, ut WAS hlChcu, huOCheu
down, trampled Oh by anybody who could
get near him, and would lave been in peril
of his lite, it the police had not rescued him
after, in their opinion, his punishment had
lasted long enough. Aud this, we should
add occurred not amidst the rabble on the
open heath, but in an inclosure, admission
to which cost five shillings, and where tue
company was more or less respectable.
The truth is, that the crowd on Epson
Downs is crowd of gamblers, and has the
code, the manners, the aspect, the reckless
ness, and the extravaganza of gamblers,
and in the capacity of gamblers Southern
nations seem to us to be superior in beha-
vior to Northern ones. Any one who has
witnessed the drawings of the "Tombola''
in Italy and the running of great race
like the Derby in England, can hardly fail
to draw comparisons unfavorable In this re.
spect to our own countrymen. OF the
twenty thousand people who, it is calGulat-
ed, were present at EPSON Downs we should
say that at least nineteen Thousand left the
course more or less the worse for LIQUOR
According to phrase much affected by po-
lcemen who have to give evidence In court,
the majority of spectators present "were
not drunk, but had been drinking" To
this state of well nigh universal semi intox-
ieatlon we should tSscribe the extraordi-
/ nary coarseness of language and gesture