Omaha daily bee., 1884-12-12
FAMOUS BETTERS.
Ministers aud Members of Parliament
Who Risked Large Sums on
Horse Raccs-Hcavy
Winners,

London Field.
When the history of betting comes tc
be written by some competenE hand Il
will appear that from the very earliest
times nearly all the prominent members
of the ring-thst varigated region-have
sprung from very humble origin. and
started with very little capital; AS nearly
all those who may, In q comparative
sense, be termed the saving members of
the fraternity die wealthy, and, as the
rest live in what they consider to be a
luxurious fashion, it will appear that
book.making is a lucrative calling, and
backing the reverse. The old Michael
Brunton, a true Yorkshireman, for in
stance, born 1855, and who, we are told,
lived respected by all, and died rich at
the age of 30, after having attended Don
caster races for sixty.one years without
intermision, and having carried on his
trade till within three years
of his death. In the matter of book
makers aspiring to municipal honors his.
tory repeats itself, for Michael wal more
than once the mayor of Richmond, where
he lived all his life. The Interpretation
of acts of parliament is said to have been
the only thing chat caused him any un.
easiness, though in that difficulty his self
reliance never deserted him, and when
his brother magistrates disagreed with his
reading-and they appear to have done
so pretty often-it VA his habit to pro.
duce a handful of coins and offered to lay
the bench six to four all around that he
was right. Quite as great a character
was old William Richards, the Leicester
stocking seller, who, like Brunton, inva.
riably dressed in a blue coat with brass
buttons, drab breeches and CATERS.
Richards used to hawk stockings in early
life, and while ON his rounds he
won some money at cards. A local
race meeting gave him the chance
OF backing a successful outsider with hts
winnings, and from this small beginning
he became the proprietor of Ragdale
Hall. Whenever he went to a race meet
ing he used to take a supply of stockings
with him to sell to the people of the inns
at which he stopped, and whenever he
won over a meeting he always brought
back brown Windsor soap and ribbons
for his servants. As an example of his
careful mode of living, it is said that he
always refused to keep q servant until he
was worth $500 a year. He always read
his bible for an hour or Sunday, being as
m~ethodical in his studies as old William
Scott-no relation to the racing family
who made it a practices to read "Bailey's
Dictionary" and the prayer.book twice
every year.
AN OLD CUSTOM.
Betting on horse racing is no doubt as
old as horse racing itself. At any rate
in the time of Charles III, racing has so
far grown from a pleasure to a business
as to call for legislative interference. In
those days, however, it must have been
we'll nigh impossible to have obtained a
correct return of the betting, as each
book-maker was a law unto himself. A
certain Mr.. Ogden, who had the reputa-
ton of having such a marvellous head
for figures as to enable him to amass a
fortune of 500, 900, was one of the first
to see the weak points in the old style
and to reduce book-making to a science.
This was about 1880, or perhaps a little
earlier. Ogden was another example of
book. maker, rising from nothing, for in
the Morning Post of July 5, 1897, the
following question subsequently answered
in the affirmative appeared: els
Mr.. Ogden NOW called the New
market Oracle) the same person
who, twenty-five years ago, was an actual
pedestrian to Ascot, covered with dust,
amusing himself with pricking in the
belt, hustling In the hat, etc.. among the
lowest class of ~rustics, at the inferior
leall. &c 4La SoJ. 0D To- 1901 TronI
Richardson allowed his fancy to outrun
his discretion, and plunged heavily on
Fortune for the Leger of that year, when
she ran second. He was unable'to meet
his engagements. To his credit, how
ever, be it reported, that instead of
Joining the army of Welshers, he adopted
| the business like course of asking for
time and issuing promisory notes to his
creditors. These forbearing creatures
must have jumped for Joy on hearing
that Richardson had, at the succeeding
Newmarket meeting, been lucky enough
to back Michaelmas at the remunera-
tive price of 20 to l for the Grand
broke Michael stakes. 1t Is not stated
in what proportion his own uprightness
and the pressure of his friends contribu-
ted to the result, but the fact remains
that the use he made of his winnings was
to redeem his paper. In 1925 Richardson
had q great turn of luck by backing Jerry
for the Ledger of that year, and refusing
to lay against him. With The fortune
of which the money 80 Won was the foup-
dation-he bought land and built a great
house near York, called by the owner st.
| Nicholas place, but dubbed by the neigh.
bors Jerry Hall. Before many years had
passed he was again in difficulties, and
| died in 1883 at the Golden Lion, New
market, in Strengthened circumstances.
THE "BABY JUMPER"
Newmarket Heath has ever been a ia
vorite resort with Cambridge undergrad.
yates of the period, and in Bob Nun
sons day they intrusted him with all
their business, ant this juvenile come
ton gained for him the sobriquet of "The
Baby Jumper" Bob, they say, had 8
hack, appropriately enough a son of Flat
catcher, who knew a hacker as well az
his master, and would stop dead when
one approached. Just when Munsor
was al the height of his success he, un,
like the Jockey in the story, "hedged,' ;
and, giving up the business of book
making, became a dissenting minister,
This by no means exhausts the list OF
men VIC have In some way or other
been remarkable and who owed Their
success to bookmaking. There wa.
John Gully, for instance, who was In
LEvANTHIAN OF TIL TURF.
There have doubtless been seyera.
| nauiaaa In fha rin1 Int fba only {w1