GAMBLING BY THE MILLION.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 370, 22 May 1889, Page 6

GAMBLING BY THE MILLION.

The other day, says a "Saturday Reviewer," we came on the rather clever remark in a " Times" leader that life is generally a speculation for the rise. The truth of the remark was literally and immediately brought homo ; to us, for we were reading the journal in a morning train on a suburban lino of railway. Four out of the other five passengers were young city men with decided pretensions to fashion, and each had purchased a sporting paper, to which they eagerly turned after a rapid perusal of the city articles in the * Standard' the "News" or tho "Telegraph." Subsequently, when they were not discussing the odds on forthcoming events, they were talking "Nitrates" and South African gold mines. As they wero travelling by the fiisb cities the presumption was that they were tolerably well off ; they might be articlod to .solicitors or .stockbrokers, or possibly looking forward to partnerships in some prosperous paternal business. But they wore young and assuredly the revorse of rich, if a difficulty in making t.he two onds meet means povorby. Yet the four were habitual speculators, with serious engagements left in the liquidation of chance. It luck went in their favour their winnings, so far as they wore not anticipated, would assuredly be promptly squandered. If luck went against them, it would bo a matter for anxious consideration how they were to carry over and ti-y again. These spotting gentlemen, in their smart coats, were tho aristocracy of the outer bettingring. They had stables at home ; they might be presumed to know something of the" points of a horse ; they had probably driven a stepper to the station ; they had an occasional day with the foxhounds and staghounds *, and perhaps on tho racecourse they might give a reason for fancying a likely competitor. But of tho particular animals on which they wore staking their sovereigns, they knew as little as an Eskimo of orchids. They simply betted upon conventional signs, blindly backing tho opinions of the propheDs, and accepting the reports of the touts. But the sale of the latest information from the training- grounds was by no means confined to those first class travellers. It was being pushed almost as briskly among the patrons of second and third-class. The man shivering in a flimsy overcoat, who had been breakfasting rather according to his means than his appetite, might grudge the morning penny, but hardly hesitated to come down with it. Either the penny might purchase a hint which would repay him a thousand times over, or more probably his mind must be eased at any price as to the prospects to the shillings he had painfully scraped together that he might indulge in a flying shot at fortune. Probably that speculator knew nothing more oi a nag than he had picked up from his observations on the pavement or on the rooi of an omnibus. Yet perhaps his chances oi balancing his book satisfactorily and as good as those of the more aristocratic speculators. One and the other knew next to nothing of what they were about, and wex-e going in for a lottery against the long odds. The presumption is that nine out of ten of them were fairly shrewd and intelligent, priding themselves, with sufficient reason, on then sharpness in their special lines of business. Nor were they foolish enough te gamble for sheer excitement ; for that is one of the luxuries reserved for their social superiors. They were simply speculating for the sake of making money, and very grateful the professional racing men ought to be to them for the carelessness with which they part with their cash. People go to a public gaming table with their eyes open. They know at' Monte Carlo that the zero is against them at roulette, and they are content to face the certainty of the refait at the rouye cl noir Consequently they are assured that the bank must win in the long run, and they back their highly speculative chances in full covnaiasavce de caiM. But the sharp - witted innocents 'who stand "to win" upon unknown horses while professing to calculate chances, never care to count with certainties?. Yet surely it might be worth their while to cpnsider "that tho great world of betting men and tipsters must live. A few of the bookmakers make fortunes out of the victims who are fleeced ; many more might retire upon competencies were they only decently prudent ; and in any ease, the indispensable expenses of the professional are enormous. The net profits at the best are but a small percentage on the heavy cross outlay. Tho man who habitually attends races is bound — Heaven save the mark ! — to keep up a certain position. His showy clothes and his flash iewellerv strike the key to his everyday habit. Ho travels first-class in jovial company ; he frequents good hotels and the best provincial inn* ; his ordinary tipple is champagne, and he is perpetually treating or being treated in the way of bu^incFS. Moreover, wherever he goes, from Doncnster or Cheater down to Little Peddlineton, when a race meeting is coming off everything is raised to fancy prices. He is billeted in a garret as a favour at the ordinary price of a first-floor sittingroom, and the very flyman who drives him to the course has double the regular fare. No wonder he has acquired habits of reckless profusion, turning over money out of all proportion to his means. It is hit or miss with him at every meeting ; he is driven along at high pressure by inexorable necessity and he trusts to the innocents to see him safely landed. And it is just the same thing in the shady precincts of the Stock Exchange. In the olden time, when the railway mania had set in, and even after tho introduction of jointstocb|companies(limited), the rage for speculation, as a lule, did not go below the monoyed middle clas?. Unless exceptionally moved by a noble ambition, the"imp3cunious clerk never dreamed of risking ruin, and the needy shopman was seldom tempted to tamper with the contents of his employer's till. Now intheiapid democratisation of oui political and financial institutions, all that has been revolutionised. Stock brokers no longer form a close corporation, governed by strict regulations under severe penalties. The outside broker — undoubtedly theie are reputable exceptions — ha 3 come to the front, and is suffered to spread snares lor unwary clients in the columns of highly respectable journals. He incites customers to speculate agains-t nextsottling day as well as to invest. Scarcely troubling himself as to the quality of the dust he throws in their eyes, he declaims against the antiquated system of brokerage, and dispenses with his legitimate commission. The inference is that it is in sheer philanthropy he runs up the long weekly advertising bills and scatters his circulars broadcast, to say nothing of renting a room and possibly retaining clerks. The secret of course is in the modern system of ' cover ' — in the cover of which he can deal at his discretion. Cooked accounts furnish unsatisfactory reasons for its disappearance ; and considering the costs and tho uncertainty of law, especially when it may be a question of an illegal bargain, the victim has practically no means of redress. Yet gudgeons will swarm to the clumsily baited hooks, and the business with its swindles and its scandal? goes on brisker than ever.