The Portland daily press., 1892-08-30

known as F1utScA6A AAAs Ac laCt
that ..phil' is not his name and that he
never lived in Pittsburgh is somewhat
remarkable. This young gambler,
|with a smooth face and fsh-fke eye, is
said TO be the most daring foe of the
Ihoolmasxers that this country has pro
;duced. not excepting even the immortal
Walton. He does not look to be over
.thfty-five years of age, and yet, pre-.
sumo. he has lived something like 100.
L was told that on the day before he had
won something like $4,000 at Mon
mouth park, and would have done
much better but for the difficulty OF
getting his money "on' in the time
allotted.
At some stages Of the game he is re-
ported to be $4,000 behind and at
other times s1oe, 600 ahead, but from
,cursory inspection of the young man I
doubt whether he cares very much
where he stands financially, so that he
has the fun Of gambling. With him, OF
course, betting on the races is now a
mania. Like all men of his kind he is
absolutely certain to wind up in pow
lertv. for It is a well-established axiom
in the gambling fraternity that only
the man who keeps the game can even
hope for permanent financial success.
EUROPE NOT sPEcULArINe.
If speculation is stagnant in New
York it is still more SO in London and
other foreign centers. Even the mer-
'curia1 Frenchman, who had rather bet
and ego broke than not bet at all, has
taken to hunting for sure things. There
lis not now one big French speculative
bubble floating where there were a
dozen ten years ago. London was hit
such a terrific blow in its Argentine
.speculations that it will be many days
before it RECEIVERS. There appears to be
but one form Of speculation these days
that has any claim for an Englishman,
and that is horse racing. He is still
ssblowing" himself against the "bloody
bookmakers," and, Of course, gradually
approaching point where he will lose
the coat off his back. AS plentiful as
money is in England, it is not taking
any chances except among the turf pa
irons. Not SO much of it is coming to
America in the shape of syndicate CAPT
tai as formerly. The small rate of in
!terest which the English capitalist is
Obliged to accept almost brings tears to
eyes unused to weeping.
A friend recently returned from
business trip abroad tells me that
money in London is almost unlendable
at any interest. Bankers with difficulty
restrain themselves from kicking Gus
toners into the street who want any
interest on long time deposits. My friend
cites a case where a bank has loaned
money at the rate of one-quarter Of one
per cent. Those of my readers who
were skeptical regarding a statement
In this correspondence that 500, 900, 900
could be raised in New York in twenty
four hours on any scheme that prom
ised four per cent. per annum are in
vited to give some thought to this Lon.
don loan. 1 get the impression that il
this opportunity referred to were of
fered to London it would produce the
money in about fifteen minutes.
OUR STREET RAILWAY SERVICE.
People from the west coming to New
York are amazed to find the metropolis
SO far behind in the matter of surface
railway transportation. While the
pushing cities of the west are nearly all
supplied with q cable-car system, we
are just beginning to discard the poor
old car horses for the cable. We have
one crosstown line in the upper end OF
the city in operation, and for more than
q year our streets have been torn up un-
,dergoing the painful process incident to
putting down the cable plant. We are
promised cable cars on Broadway on
New Years day. After seeing the mas
sacre of street-car horses here during
the hot term ann sure there is not a
New Yorker who will not gladly well
come the cable car.
Despite the fact that we have spent
nearly four years here declaring war on
overhead electric wires, lot Of schem-
ing spectators are trying to introduce
the trolley system, most excellent one
for suburban use, but entirely unfit for
such an urban community as ours. The
true solution of the electric surface rail-
way is an electric underground wire.
All experiments so far have proven un-
satisfactory, but believe that finally
some process will be found by which an
electric cable for motor purposes can be
laid in the ground without the usual In
duction loss Of current. When this is
accomplished we shall have the ideal
surface railway.
JOHN A. CocKERILL.
QUEER SMOKING CONTEST.