A BETTING CAREER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11986, 7 June 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

A BETTING CAREER.

I « •. J. «- ■ A BOOK has just been published under the title of "A Wasted Life." in which some curious statements are made about the career of a sporting man. The author, Dike Wilkinson, drifted into the betting business. He disguises nothing of the tips and downs of his career; like most novices, he won his knowledge by bitter experience, and it was only after a good many buffets of fortune that he began to establish himself more securely in his new calling. He can even moralise admirably, by the way, on the qualities which make for success in this world. This for example, is how he "writes of one of his early partners, or '"pals'': — "He was a merry little chap, with a good heart, a generous disposition, and one ot the sweetest tempers that ever "'dwelt in a man ; and I suppose that's why I was fond of him. These good qualities are desirable possessions for a young fellow but unless he possesses with them a little judgment, some strength of character and will, he were almost better without them, for these amiable attributes in men—when not mixed with and supported by those of sterner stuff—are apt to lead them astray; to degenerate, indeed, into very vices. For is it not true that all orrc vices are virtues upside down —our'worjvt faults, but the negative "side of our good qualities'." ■-■.'• ■'./

Betting men, Mr. Wilkinson takes O&i----siou somewhere to insist, are good and bad, like the rest of •peopled-even churchgoers, arid .he resents the : vift'-vafT of (he, turf being regarded by "ignorant arid unthinking goody-goodv folk" as at all a fan-sample. Unconsciously' "the writer discloses at times his"delight in arty piece of smart swindling, and in the most natural way nossibie shows how the atmosphere ; of the betting ring makes even" a straightforward mail ready to gull any arid everybody when he; can get a chance, It is to the credit of Air.' Wilkinson's transparent honesty thai he.tells frankly of the miserable 'end to, which so many "of his sporting friends and acquaintances came. In this way he joints an un:willing moral, arid the chapter inserted in the midst of his narrative, .with the title •" A' Penitential .Mood."' is both courageous and pathetic in its self-disclosure: — '"Let no one imagine that in the midst of ; this whirl of racing, gambling, and drink I was always and entirety happy. At the risk of being'laughed at by some of my friends J am going to confess tfiat was not so. ', Deep down in my heart wore thoughts undreamt of. and perhaps not .understandable by my companionsa sense of.remorse and unrest, a feeling that I was not meant to go by this way. hut by a. widely different one. '• For years after I became a professional I racing man I. found it impossible to go into ' any place of worship. Such a coward was I I in these matters,*.the solemn tones of a | church organ.- heard in the distance, or a familiar hymn tune on a hurdy-gurdy in the street,; would < make we rim away. And yet at times I yearned with a yearning, almost irresistible jo go back to the other life, and sit once more among my old friends/' There are chapters devoted to punters, plungers, sharpers, welshws. " safe 'uns" and " wrong 'mis." trainers and jockeys, and all/the other interests of the' racing world. The humour of the book is mostly of a primitive sort, but there is a delightful strain of quite unconscious humour in the account of the benevolent bookmaker win. tried to reform an inveterate " welsher.' "and make an honest betting man of him and the story of the collier bookmaker or the Manx steamer in a heavy storm, who" induced people to bet with him against thei. safe arrival in port, is distinctly good.