THE VULTURES OF THE TURF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 6273, 24 December 1881, Page 7

THE VULTURES OF THE TURF.

Never did the ready-money bookmaker, socalled, flourish more extensively, and never were his surroundings — always bail —so repulsive as at the present time. The expugilist, the thief of every degree, the very scum of the populace, are diawn to our racecourses by the ready-money betting, on which they thrive, and which they find an easy way of getting a good living without doing hard work. The start in life as a ticket-snatcher—for so the stealer of betting tickets is now known — leads 011, until he i'ets upon his own account as a welsher, and, by a lucky coup, he is enabled to make a show of payment, when he becomes the ready money bookmaker, and a made man. It is a well-known fact that one of the most prominent of these gentry, who now bets to hundreds of pounds, was, until a comparatively recent date, in the habit of holding levees of ticket-snatchers of an evening after the day's racing to receive the winning tickets that had been stolen, making the thieves an allowance out of the plunder. It was no unusual thing at Newmarket to see a dozen or more of these fellows waiting at the door of their employer to negotiate for the tickets that had been stolen during the day. Profitable in those times, the business receiving no check, it has now grown to enormous proportions, and the ready-money man apes respectability, and generally has a carriage anil a pair of horses to convey him to and from the racecourse.—World.