Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-07-28
BETTING IN LONDON.
Raid Upon the Betting Houses of
LonGon-HOw the Betting Business
is Conducted,


LonGon-HOw the Betting Business
is Conducted,
Correspondence of the New York Tribune.
LONDON, June pa matter of far great
ef interest to half the people of England
than the tinkering of the Lords on the
Irish Bill, is the Government raid on the
betting I don't know whether this
particular flower of English civilization has
been tfansplanted to New York, or whether
you have any notion of the extent and
profit Of its cultivation here Take Wright'S
establishment for an example. Wright Is
L suppose, what is calleda respectable man.
lie IS a member of the Ring, member oi
IattersalPs, and, for aught know, Il mem
Der Of tho church. He advertises in the
newspapers that he will transact
a commission business for per-
sons desirOus of investing THEN
money on specified horses Send him ten
shillings, or ten or thousand pounds, and
he will ''invest" it for you at the current
odds on my horse you like for any race.
There are said to be greenhorns gre en-
enough to send money to be laid out at the
discretion OF the respectable Mr.. Wright.
In that case, as the counsel for the govern
ment remarked, he of course put ther money
on some horse sure not to win, and when
he has not won, the respectable Mr. Wright
equally OF course, puts the money into his
pocket. But where money is sent to back o
particular horse, the fiction is kept up that
some third person-name not necessary to
be known to the public, but might be called,
we will say, Mrs. Harris-bets against the
horse and wins or loses. But the possible
ty III carrying on o great business like Mr.,
Wrights, consists in acquiring public con-
fidence, and that confidence would speedi-
~ be lost II IN any case the money won by
a customer were not forthcoming Mr..
Wright does in fact pay if he loses and
whether he gets the money from anybody
else or not is matter of Indifference TO
the lucky fellow who gets it from him
SO far as the public knows, and the law
KNOWS, MI. Wrightis simplya ''booEmaker
on gigantic scale. To the ordinary ad-
vantages of that lucrative business he
adds the advantage of paying himself a
commission on the money he loses There
are many such houses Ill England. Wrights
is perhaps the largest. Morris, who is also
under prosecution, is another great one.
You may judge of the extent of their bust
ness from two facts On last years Derby,
when Blue Gown won, the amount paid
on that single horse, through Wright
4 alone, was more than three hundred thou
sand pounds sterling somewhere near
two millions of what now pass for dollars
III America The other fact shows
the system as well as the ey-
tent Of the business. The sums received
are entered in q book like q check-book.-
A receipt for each sum is torn out of the
4 book, and the counterfoil, containing a
corresponding entry, remains in the vol
ume. When Wright was arrested the DO
lice found this book-indeed, there was no
conceaiment about it, for the business was
carried on IN daylight in public office,
with great number of clerks The book
contained 56,OoU vouchers, of which 80,
9OO had been taken out. Each one repre-
sented somebody's investment, and this
enormous number covered a period of only
two months. They varied in amount from
ten shillings to fifty pounds, and the whole
sum must have exceeded e1OO. 600 and
probably was se200, 600 or e300, 900.
Considering that there are some hum
dreds of such houses all over England, and
that their operations are carried on with
every sort of publicity, that they can only
be carried on at all by the complicity Of
the public, and that they have gone on
thus openly for years, it produces a sensa
ton of surprise to find that it is all done in
fragrant violation of law. There is a stat
ute some fifteen years old against betting
houses, known to lawyers as the 1G and IL
Wet. 119, which was carried through Par
lament by the present Chief Justice. then
Atty-Gen. C0ckburn. 1t would be very
moderate to say half the members of the
House Of Commons and more than half the
Lords are habitHal gamblers on the turf.
Nevertheless, they passed this law without
objection for it was understood that it was
meant to put down betting by persons OF
an inferior class, and it is well known that
betting on the part Of poor men who cam
not risk more than ten shillings at time,
is an immoral transaction, while betting on
q large scale is q truly gentlemaniy
sport If you happen to be clerk and are
tempted to rob your masters till for the
sake of backing a Derby favorite, the mas.
ter class has plain interest in discourag.
ing these ventures. If you are Duke Of
Newcastle, and only squander revenue OF
!, $40, 900 year, it is supposed to be no
body's business but your own does not
degrade the patrician order of which you
are distinguished member, nor lower the
tone OF public morals, nor encourage the
clerk to follow your example, and ''plunge'
to the extent OF his means, or of his op
portunities for petty larceny.
The source and center of all the turf
gambling in England is Tattersalls. Wha
IattersalPs IS, need hardly be explained
any more than what Westminster Abbey
IS. Most people know that it is q betting
club, to which great numbers of the bes
known men in England belong-me1
known IN politics, in society, everywhere
perhaps, except in the church. If an,
Bishops are members their names are no
given to the public. tits Just as much thu
headquarters Of betting, as the EXCHANGE
is the headquarters of stoc1-gambling, ant
the price OF horse-that is, the odd
gwen or taken about him for any race
J is determined absolutely by tht
quotations OF Tattersall's, Just as th.
price OF consols are determined by theouo
tatlons OF the Stock Exchange. It is tn,
place where bets are made, and wherethe,
are paid on SETTLING days" One of thu
commission agents before the court las
week, stated that he could not transact hi,
, business at all without hearing reeularl,
from TattersalPs. Business men in Wal
street are familiar with those little yellow
, Slips which are sent round by vendors O
telegraphlc news, telling from hour to hou1
the prices OF stocks the world over. JUS
} sucli nttle sllps go from Tattersalls all ove1
hhgiano, with the latest betting quotations
and the betting houses fill their commits
slons IN accordance with the prices thus
made for them.
Anybody can see, then, that to proceed
against the betting houses and leaving Tat
tersails untouched is only pruning off the
branches OF tree that ought to be torn M
by the roots. The counsel for Morris inst
iy complained that his client should be at
tached while the greatest offenders in the
land went unmolested The newspapers
published the betting quotation as regular
ly as ever, and although the Bow street
magistrate warned the commission agents
not TO continue operations pending
the present trials, he said in res
peet to I'attersalps, that the case was mo-
before him. There may be distinction
IN law between the two, but there is none
IN morals, and whether or not the case be
within the jurisdiction of Bow street, it is