St. Paul daily globe., 1884-11-26
SOME FAMOUS BETTING.
Mes tcho Hare Made and Lost Money f,l
the Past.


the Past.
A London paper gives description of IA
nous betters and says that when the history
of betting comes to be written by some com
petent hand it will appear that from the earli-
"st time nearly all the prominent members
bave sprung from very humble origin and
started with very little capital. As nearly
all those who may, in a comparative sense,
be termed the saving members of the fra
ternity die wealthy, and, as the rest live In
what they consider luxurious fashion, It
will appear that book-making is q lucrative
calling, and backing the reverse. Take old
Michael Brunton, a true Yorkshireman, for
instance, born in 1855, and who, we are
told, lived respected by all, and died rich at
the age Of ninety, after having attended
DOneaster races for sixty one years without
intermission, and having carried on his
trade within three years of his death.
In the matter of book makers aspiring to
municipal honors, history repeats itself, for
Michael was more than once mayor Of Rich
mond, where he lived all his life. The in
depreciation Of acts of parliament is said 20
have been the only thing that caused him
any uneasiness, 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 was his habit to produce a
handful of coins and offer to lay the bench
six to four all round that he was right. Quite
great character was old William Richards,
the Leicester stocking seller, who, like Brun-
ton, invariably dressed in blue eOat, with
brass buttons, drab breeches and CATERS.
Richards used to hawk stockings in early
/ life, and while on his rounds won money at
cards. local race meeting gave him the
/ chance of backing a successful outsider with
his winnings and from that small beginning
he became the proprietor OF Ragdale hall.
Whenever he went to a race meeting he used
TO take supply Of stockings with him to sell
I TO the people OF the inns at which he stopped,
and whenever he won over a meeting he al
/ ways brought back brown Windsor soap and
ribbon for his servants. He always read his
Bible for an hour on Sunday, being as meth
Odical in his stadies as old William Scott
no relation to the racing family-who made
| it practice TO read ''Bailey's Dictionary
and the Prayer Book twice every year.
| Betting on horse racing is no doubt as old
as horse racing itself. At any rate, in the
time of Charles II. racing seems to have
/ grown from pleasure to a business as to
call for Legislative interference. In those
days, however, il must have been well 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 reputation Of having such a
marvellous head for figures as to enable him
to amass fortune Of 100000, was one Of
the first TO see the weak points in the old
style, aud TO reduce book making TO a sci
ence. This was about 1870, or perhaps a
little earlier.
Ogden was another example OF a book
maker rising from nothing, and in the Noru-
itg Post Of July 5, 1897, the following ques-
ton, subsequently answered in the affirma-
tive, appeared: SIS Mr.. Ogden, (now the
Newmarket oracle) the same person who,
twenty-five years ago, was an annual pedes-
triar to Ascot, covered with dust, amusing
himself with prickiug in belt, hustling in the
hat, etc. among the lowest class of rustics,
at the inferior booths at the fairl'' In 1921
Frank Richardson allowed his fancy TO out
run his discretion, and plunged heavily on
Fortuna for the Leger OF that year, and when
she ran second he was unable
TO meet his engagements To
his credit, however, be it repeated that,
instead of joining the army of welshers, he
adopted the business like course OF asking
for time and issuing promissory notes to his
creditors
These forebearing creatures must have
jumped for JOY on hearing that Richardson
had, at the succeeding meeting, been lucky
enough to back Nichaelmas at the remnera-
ative price Of twenty to one for the Grand
Duke Michael Stakes. 1t is not stated in
what proportion his own uprightness aud the
pressure Of his friends contributed TO the re-
suit; but the fact remains that the first use he
made of his winnings was to redeem his
paper. In 1924 Richardson had great turn
Of luck by backing Jerry for the leger OF
that year, and refusing to lay against him.
With the fortune, Of which the money so won
was the foundation, he bought land, built q
great mouse near York, called by the owner
81. Nicholas place, but dubbed by the neigh
bors Jerry hail Before many years had