Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-08-02
CURIOUS WAGERS.
a RECORD OF SOME wHIMsICAb
AND REMARIxABLE BETS.
Causing Pig to Run Milo without
Stopping-Waiking Around
the Dead Sea Back
wards, Etc.

Somebody once said that "a collection
of foolish wagers would make volumi-
nous work." and SO odd are some of
these 'foors arguments" that few of
the most curious cannot but prove inter
esting.
During the last century, aud particu.
larry in club life, when the least differ
ence of opinion generally ended in II bet,
many remarkable and eccentric wager
were made.
Time has removed the veil that hid the
club life of sold O." and his set from the
gaze of their contemporaries, and we are
now permitted to see the fine gentlemen
of the days of Charles james Fox and
Beau Nash pursuing their vocation OF
gambling and betting with the assiduous
perseverance of the most money getting
tradesmen.
"old O." otherwise the Duke of
Quccnsbcrry, whose extraordinary bet,
ting proclivitics have made his name fa-
nous, was the connecting link between
the profiigacy Of two generations. Dur.
ing the latter years of his life IN cina.
ciated old man might be seen sitting in
the balcony of Il Piccadilly mansion hold
inga parasol. The coachman of the Bath
Road as he drove by would point him out
to some wondering passenger as the
wicked Duke of Qucensberry, and tcll
how his daily milk bath was transferred
to the pals of the milkmen aud many
other tales Of similar order BETTING the
days of the second Charles rather than of
the third George.
ttOl1 ~ ,vo, , i,oo,, o,,1 ,,,o.. 49,,
sportsman in his day and often rode his
horses himself. Among the many cccen-
trio bets that he made, was one, that he
would cause n pig to run mile without
stopping, and without being driven or
led. To do this, he got young pig,
which he placed in sly, with trough
just outside, to which it was regularly
let out, next day the trough was removed
few yards further from the sty, and the
distance increased gradually, until it was
at length placed mile from it. Six
weeks were taken thus to train up the
pig; and he always, us soon MS let out OF
the sty, ran forward to the trough, and
thus, on the duy of trial, His Grace OF
Qucensbcrry rakcd in two thousand gum.
Gus.
On another occasion he bet n consider
able sum that he would convey Il letter
fifty miles within an hour, without the
aid of horses, carrier pigeons, ETC.; and
this he effected by having it enclosed in
crickct-ball, which twenty-four expert
cricketers transferred to each other; by
which means the ball passed more than
fifty miles within the given time.
Another singular wager Of "Old Q. IS"
was that he would produce man who
would eat more at meal than any one
whom Sir John Lade could find. The
Duke was informed of his success-not
being present at the achicvement-by the
following bulletin from the field of bat
tie:
my Lord, have not time to state
particulars, but merely to acquaint your
Grace that your man beat his antagonist
by an apple pie"
In February, ITO, bet was laid by
the Earl of Banbury that he should find O
man who would ride to Edinburgh and
back again to London in less time than
Lord Conirgsby should make million
dots in the most expeditions manner that
he could contrive.
In 1888, "Buck" Whaley, one of the
last of the fire. eating squires of his day,
took bets to the amount of twenty thou.
sand pounds, that he would walk to Jcr.
usalem, except where sea passage was
unavoidable, play ball against its walls
and return inside of year.
A few years later Sir Bourchier Grey,
in order to qualify for admission to the
Travellers Club, wagered n thousand
pounds that he would walk around the
the tale.
Among the higher circles of the present
day the same betting propensity is visible
to those who choose to look for it. In
deed, the juenessc dorec of to-day seem
quite as much at loss how to kill time
us were the fine gentlemen of the last cen
fury.
Quite recently Mr.. Fashionable
Wouldbe, u well known club-man in
New York, undertook for wager to hop
five hundred yards in fifty hops in Cen
trail Park. He performed the feat i'll
forty-six. Last November the same gen.
tlcman wagercd that if Harrison was
elected he would trundle whcclbarrow
up Fifth avenue Ill his shirt slecveS on
Sunday, just as the fashionable world
were coming out of church.
a short time since, Mr.. Horsey Million,
one of the smartest young men about
town, bet Mr.. Patentleathcr Athlete that
he would cat pound of oyster crackers
without taking drink-whilc Athlete
slipped pint of lager out of soup plate
with salt-spoon. The money was stakcd,
and the performance began; but before
Million was half way through the crackers
Athlete was completely intoxicated from
the fumes of the beer
Verify, no subject seems too trivial for
bet to those who have no better way of
spending their time and thci. money.
Only the other day group of gentlemen
were sitting in the window OF certain
club on Fifth avenue, not hundred
miles from Madison Square, when it be-
gan to rain. Two drops of rain were
trickling down the pane when one of the
gentlemen present offered to bet five hun
drcd dollars that the right-hand drop
Il. l. L