The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-24
RAIN GAMBLING IN INDIA.
How Bets Are Made and Decided
Wagers on Bird Fights.

In India, and possibly more espec-
tally in the large seaport towns, gamb-
ling is found in almost every conceiv-
able form. from the sweepstake on
the Calcutta cup to the chuck farthing
OF the bazaars.
The rainy season. however, brings
into temporary vogue a particular
kind of speculation which is about
the simplest specimen of gambling to
be found anywhere, and has the ad-
vantage or distinction of allowing no
opportunity to sharpers and birds of
feather to exercise their skill in any
manipulations which deceive the eye
of the novice.
This system of gambling is called
sutta, or rain specu:ation. The man
who thinks himself weather wise bets
according to his opinion, and it rests
with the elements only to decide who
is the winner. The betting may take
place anywhere, so long as there is
roof and spout, or vain gauge, recog-
nized by both parties in the betting
transaction.
If the gambling takes place in a
room there will probably be a long,
counterlike table extending from one
end to the other; at one side of this
table are the bookmakers sitting on
cushions. and by their side a gorgeous
brass bound box and native inkstand
and old-fashioned sandbox. and these
men book the time at which gambler
prognosticates the rain will descend.
The means of settling the question
whether it does rain or not are of SIM
pie description.
There are two classes of rain gauges,
one is long gutter running along the
caves of the house or building-at one
end there is small hole to which
spout is fixed, and through this mar
row aperture the water trickles when
the rain only falls in the form of
slight drizzle. but when it rains in
earnest the rush of water is not able
to escape through the small spout,
SO fills up the gutter and pours over
the end. and it is on this desired event
happening that most of the bets are
usually booked. The other method is
a rough kind of rain gauge supported
standing in the middle of trough.
When heavy clouds gather overhead
and appear to be merely in doubt as
to whether to break and pour down
rain or to pass on to some other dis
trict, then the scenes in the gambling
dens reach an intense stage of excite
ment as the gamblers rush in to book
their bets-that is, if the police don't
interfere. Many are the anxious faces
which gaze up into the sky, for, like a
Derby day in England, some have
staked their all, and comparative for
tunes or total loss and despair de-
ponds on the clouds above. Rich
buniahs or merchants. soldiers and
clerks, all classes risk their money
in the hope Of increasing it, with the
consequence that many are ruined.
AS In other countries. with some the
passion for gambling is so strong with
in them that it is species of mad
ness. and they hesitate not, in the in
tensity of their keenness, to indulge
their propensity with money that is
not their own, and many are sent to
prison for losing other peoples money
to the sutta bookmakers.
Another somewhat uncommon form
of gambling takes more after the ma
ture of cock fighting, insomuch that It
Is betting on the fighting powers of
certain birds. The particular kind Of
bird varies In some measure according
to the part Of India. Chikor, which
are larger than partridge, are found
on the lower slopes Of the mountains