Year: 1868

RACECOURSE GAMBLING.


In England, country in which the turf Is
supposed TO be conducted upon principles
of the purest honor, the evidence Is cuInu-
lative and conclusive that betting upon
horse races, like betting upon any other
event of chance, is disastrous in It's IN
huence upon both public and private morals
There may have been time when the specula-
tions of the Derby gave rise TO 10 ignomlnlouS
scandals, and when the purity OF the betting
stand was beyond the suspicion OF the most
desperate loser but book making has proved
fatal even to that diluted morality the show OF
which is the last creditable pTctcnse which the
blaclleg abandOns. In spite of subtcriuge aud
extenuation, this is the color TO which the
rsking of money upon uncertain results
must come at last a man who wagcrs
more than he can well spare, or well knows
how to pay should he prove mistaken, simply
that he may maintain the accuracy oi ms
Judgment, and who is more eager for the repu-
tation of superior knowledge than Tor the
knowledge itself, will soon find his conscience
more and more complying. and the selt-leSpect
which can alone save him from habilual re-
course TO fraud and faschood becoming. 10y
degrees, an Enthusiastically monitor. And tins, II
must be remembered, is stating the ease III the
most favorable way, for the majority ol those
who haunt the race-cOurse for gambling pui-
noses are not so much morally weak rs they
are fagfiously audacOus. To them II -
,.a4tss q indintrvuov whether they win great
sums by the success of this horse or the fail
ure of the other. At all the innocent small
talk about the improvement OF equine breeds,
they laugh in their sleeves; for they would not
she'd a tear were every thoroughbred III En-
gland shot and given to the hounds, and the
Derby consigned to the limbo of things lost on
earth, if only some equally convenient gam
bling expedent could he hit upon to take It's
place Whether their victims think themselves
knowing in horsc-fesh or in hazard, y TO them
a matter of supreme indifference.


As the misfOituncs of Trstram Shandy be-
gan before he came into the world, so the
troubles of the English Derby for 1868 com
menced long before the 9th of May. The
most noble the Marquis of Hastings, having
been last year a loser TO an enormous amount,
had ignoby compromised with his creditors by
paying them five shillings in the pound. If he
had been anything less than Il Marquis it was
universally admitted that his expulsion from





attempt TO enter iD would have been n fore
gone conclusions. A plain plebeian, it would
have been as easy for him to get in as for
Adam to have Overleapcd the flaming sword
and reinstated himself in Paradise Being a
Marquis, he at any rate managed TO enter his
horses, and to try conclusions once more with
fortune. The result has been scandal of
more ancient and fsh-like smell than ever. 1t
is generally admitted, we believe, that the
Marquis was a dupe, or, in plain words, rather
more of a fool than n knave; that the cOndi-
ton of the mare Lady Elizabeth was
studiousy concealed as well from him as from
the public; that she had probably been
"dOctored" by her trainers, while great cry
was kept up in betting circles in her favor;
that the Marquis was priced by the Ring" to
scratch "the Earl" upon which he stood TO win
935,OOO so that, as Mr.. James Greenwood
writes to The Star, his Lordship-the aristo-
cratic patron of Englands nOblest spOrt-his
Lordship aud his Lordship's horses "were mere
"tools in the hands of certain persons, who
"went in to win, and shut their eyes to every
"other consideration '-persOns who alone had
knowledge of the incompetent and, in fact,
miserable condition of the "Lady Elizabeth"
ana who made up their DOCKS anu manipulated
the unhappy Marquis accordingly.


These are the sweet rumors and the odor-
iferous suggestions which fill the racing
atmosphere of England. There is a sOnorous
bandying of words there is a freshet of
communications by sporting hands to the
sporting newspapers the Marquis has his
champions, the trainers their defenders
Admiral Rous goes about giving his views
at length and loudly; The Pail Mall Gazette
hopes "for an elucidation of the mystery"
but the only thing absolutely certain-which,
for that matter, is the only thing of the least
Importance to the worlds that there was a
swndle somewhere. For didactic purposes, 1T
matters not whether the arrantest offender of
all wore the coronet of peer or the jacket
of jockey; the Derby must bear the response
bility of all who dabble in it, so long as its
recurrence is the signal for gambling the most
disreputable which any civilized country ever
Witnessed; and if horse racing in England can
not be maintained for its own sake, and with
out eDgendering and supporting horde of
book making blacklegs, then horse racing there
should, and we believe will be, finally aban-
doned. In this country, with an increasing in
terest in such diversions, it is to be hoped that
we may profit by the disrepqte into which the