PECULIARITIES OF PENCILLERS AND PUNTERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 84, 26 January 1907, Page 2

PECULIARITIES OF PENCILLERS AND PUNTERS.

Each year rolling round brings with 1 4t a tale of blewed boodle ..asad; .a;.J.oag.jiSt. SoL poverty-stricken, punt-' ers and bro^n bookmakers. :-£o©kiiig back one ■< sees the imbecile individuals who set put with a big heart a. month or two ago to break the books, but who have , since fallen by the wayside ; and intermixed with these is a stray penciller or two, victims of the full limit or tfee "no reply" system. In addition to the number there is the larger crowd who are m a continual state of "on the mark," and a few more who are said to "climb into it." This' latter class, it must be admitted contains a number of the real sporting gentry, but there is an undoubted plurality of pencillers and professional punters with parasitical proclivities. *It is reasonable to assume that owners, train-ers and jockeys can hit with success when they possess the capital and have good " racing material m their hands, and it' is. likewise conceivable that a bookmaker with a' large business may finance * a good credit. But it is .not m the ordinary run of affairs that the'ordin-ary punter who , has notions of picking them,; or who lends a willing ear to what he deems the correct chat, will reap a golden-' ■, harvest from backing horses. They may reap a little enjoyabfe v excitement, but the plunger : generally ends m sorrow. It is, of course, the losses of. the plungers, and of the small bettors, continually on the mark, which provide winnings to the lucky sports arid fortunate fielders and a living to the parasites before mentioned. The great problem which presents itself to the layman is wtoy the plungers plunge and- the silver bettors ' slave and squander ? Many a pitiable tale is unfolded m court about bsttine; lvein.fi; responsible for' a delinquent's dowjifail, and the judge inv'aribly comments on the fact that the desire to make moii&y without, working for ifc is at the bottom of the whole . business, etc., etc. This 1 summing up however, does,,not fully explain "the position. In tact it is nothing more or less than a fabulous fancy akin to.' the notion that guessers guess a different .hais6 to eyery pat-iofi; "of ". £o -that 'other * nebuloii s iiotiori ? ' that" a certain horse . must win a certain race because it has been dosed with strychnine. If all these ideas were facts, bookmakers would quickly run short of punters, guessers of patrons and trainers of strychnine or horses. There must be, then* some other causes which bring- about ttie downfall, of the aforesaid broken bookmakers and poverty-stricken punters. The majority of fielders .no doubt sprang into their line of life believing it to b» lucrative and agreeable. They are prone to look upon the punters as mugs, and m some casesto treat them as such ;. but the successful "book" is the bland, smilingfaood individual who never fails to greet his customers with a cheery word and a dose of adulation. "The Mugs" seem to glory m this treatment and are content to lose a trifle while they stand on familiar terms with such iolly good fellows. "The dook" also captivates numerous punt' ers. They swell with pride pn being heartily grasped by the hand By a leading .leviathan m the main' thoroughfare. But the punters object to .betting with a poorly dressed penciller who, barely extends the ordinary civility to them. I remember before the last Feilding meeting a hard-working little tradesman wended his way to invest half-a-croy;<n on Scotch Reel, and dilated at' some length on the ■genuine nature of the tip which led to his investment. He received such a good hearing, and was so delighted, that he made his ibet "all up so and so." By investing a shilling m a fourpenny bar this same tradesman could have got & pint' of beer and a good hearing from two fellow workmen, .but he preferred the company of, the well-dressed "book," who ,riiay have been a. tradesman himself ten years ago, and m this particular case perhaps the 2s 6d, though it was -a dead loss, was the better investment. Perhaps Pendlebury's Arithmetic would prove it to be the case ; still a pint of beer is not bad, and I would like to put this problem v before j. j. north, and get his opinion. That, however, is getting away from the point. Did you ever notice the difference between the bettor and the layer m the case of a loss ? When the former has a small loss he sometimes sets out * cheerfully to recover, but he never gets very sullen till he has lost his house and furniture, and it is" only when he has sold his waistcoat and has to wear a cummerbund m midwinter that he talks suicide. I may mention, however, that when the neve« appeared a year ago that Wales bad beaten New •Zealand at football, a 'little Ikey Mo, who takes an active part m controlling Rugby, was seized rwith a fit of vomiiting m WiHis-streiet, and people said he lost £10 over the match'! Still there i is -no actual proof that it was the bet which him to puke so plenteously. The bookmakers have a very uphill task to make "tote odds" pay nowadays, and the scheme of payinsr the full limit, coupled with the "no-reply" system played havoc with their incomes. It is always difficult to accurately estimate the extent of their losses, but they may be gauged as large vhen they look ill, pretty severe when you hear them levelling abuse at the punters, aod beyond endurance when

they turn the game up. When you hear some particular party sorted out and called a nasty name, or appallingly anathematised, be sure he struck a winner with a parcel of "no replies." Conversely, if the bookmaker tells you that "the punters cannot win always despite the fact that they think they can, it is a sign that he has not lost ; and when you hear the backers spoken of as "mugs" and "rummies of the first water" you can bet your life the "books" have had a good win.. And indeed, m many cases they have to deal with "rummies of the first water"—rummies who back a jockey's mounts, others who follow a horse, a stable, or a sire, some who wish "•to knock the bookmakers a twister," and I have heard of an individual who confessed to having a scheme to smash the tote.

Probably the bitterest pang to. the bookmaker is when he has to pay a dividend to a rival. None of them like, this proceeding, and it is especially galling when a parcel of no replies are suspected of emanating from the same quarter. I feel certain that, if. leviathans "who punt successfully: knew, what nasty cognomens are assigned them they would never try to bet with their fellowfielders, but stick religiously to "laying them," for it. is not pleasing to :be slandered and accused of theft when one has every intention of bet;ting m a .sportsmanlike' manner, and 'woukl ? never dream : of ' underhand;. praotices^Ki Me tsaTn&«mamßer w :vßje^ ordinary punter would never dream of indulging m the game away from a racecourse could he but understand the idiot he is considered by the common run of "leviathans."' A little weakness, how,ever. frequently leads one to believe m his power to pick them, or iiti the information he receives as the relia^bJe stuff ; or maybe lie has an ambition to beat the bookmaker .m a' fair bet with the field ogainst him. Altogether the game s-eems to be very "fascinating;, even for mem. who are noted for their shrewdness m business, and who freciuently run amok after a long term of strenuous saving, and souauder a fortune from which 'Hie State sometimes gets ten per. cent, and agrees . to provide an old age pension lor the once wealthy whiskers. . ■■■