EXTRAORDINARY WAGERS

Cromwell Argus, Volume L, Issue 2648, 17 November 1919, Page 7

EXTRAORDINARY WAGERS

Curious wagers are not so common now, as in bygone days. Iu 1670, for instance, Lord Digby staked £SO that he would walk five miles round Newmarket Heath in a certain time, barefooted and stark naked, rmd lost by the narrow margin of half a minute, the King and all the Court being witnesses of the performance! Tn the latter half of the eighteenth century a Liverpool scientist bet a brother scientist that he would read a newspaper by the light of a farthing dip at a distance of thirty feet. 'The wager was cheerfully accepted. The first scientist merely coated the inside of a shallow .wooden, box with pieces of looking-glass, so as to form a concave lens, placed it behind his farthing dip, and easily read the small print at the distance named. The winning of the wager was witnessed by a Liverpool dockmaster, who ultimately applied the idea to lighthouse requirements, and evolved the modern reflected light. About two years ago, during a yachting trip of members of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, Mr. A. W. Willmcr, a leading Liverpool cotton broker", was presented with s. pair of wooden shoes for his birthday, and another member of the Board offered to contribute a sum of money to two charities if Mr. Willincr would go to the Cotton Exchange wearing them. For sweet charity's sake, Mr. .Willrner appeared on, 'Change wearing the wooden shoes and the stakes were handed over to him.

Perhaps the limit was reached in a certain town in Canada, where a man propelled a green pea with a toothpick for about eighty yards along the pavement within half an hour of the stipulated time, and won his wager.