THE FRACAS AT TATTERSALL'S

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 67, 24 December 1881, Page 228

THE FRACAS AT TATTERSALL'S

It is not our intention to say much about the fracas at Tattersall's on Friday last. The -whole affair was utterly disgraceful — disgraceful to the club, disgraceful to ourselves, and disgraceful to the Southern Ring, of which the half-silly Weston, happens to be a temporary though unworthy member. Of course it may chance to anybody to have a grievance (either imaginary or real) against a newspaper proprietor, and to feel compelled to take steps to avenge the same. There are, however, gentlemanly ways and blackguard ways of carrying out such reckonings, and we think it will be admitted that the mode adopted by Weston was sufficiently cowardly and contemptible to have been invented even by Wickhani himself. Weston did not, as any arAN would have done, enter the room and say, " Unless you explain such and such a para-

graph in your paper I shall strike you or pull youv nose!" On the contrary, he first carefully ascertained outside that we had no friend with us, and that there was nobody in the room likely to take our part. Then he entered, and with the' object of throwing us off our guard, said " G-ood evening " civilly, and enquired if we were quite well. Finally the fellow marched up the room as if to pass to the seat behind us, but stopping suddenly on the way stooped down to the chair in which wo were sitting, and before it Avas possible to attempt the slightest movement or even put up a hand, had clutched at our face and achieved Avhat is generally known as n nosepulling. We remarked at the time, and we repeat the statement now that the veriest footpad or "-arotter couldn't have carried out the assault more cravenly. The 'fellow daren't (though he could easily have mashed us to chicken seed) say beforehand what he was going to do ; he descended to the miserable meaness of deceiving us by a civil greeting ; he attacked a silUntj man, and "he took good care to make his own safety perfectly secure by carrying with him a thick and (we were subsequently informed) loaded stick. Naturally our first impulse was to strike the rascal back, but at the same moment it (lashed across us that we should certainly fall into a neatly contrived trap if we did so. Weston's great object was, without doubt, lo yet -us to retaliate in some way. Such a random blow as we could have given him would not, in all probability, have hurt him much, and he would then have felt able to roll into us properly without fear of consequences. This agreeable programme (which, as there was no one in the room likely to raise a finger on our behalf, would probably have been carried out in its entirety) we frustrated by exorcising a little self-control, and we have every reason to congratulate ourselves that we did so. To be grossly insulted by a low beast like Wuston was bad enough, but to be mixed up in a losing fight with him would have been infinitely worse besides rendering us liable to the just wrath of Tattersall's committee for brawling in their club room. Weston left the place immediately, and was not seen about again that evening till close on 1 a.m., when Mr Fisher, going his usual rounds, discovered Mr Valiant Nose-puller hid under one of the girls' beds upstairs, with his boots off. Mr Fisher dragged the bookmaker out, and demanded what lie did there. Weston could give no explanation whatever worth the name, but begged piteoudy not to be locked out, saying ho had recently got into a similar scrape in Oamaru, and had to pay £50 to square matters. He then offered sundry bribes to Mr Fisher, who, however, declined to bo squared by £50, or even £100.- Still, not wishing to have any scandal in connection with his house, he at length determined to be good-natured, and contented himself by turning Weston down the stairs and out into the street. We arc at prosent engaged in ferreting out Mr Weston's past history, and shall be in a position shortly to describe to' the members of Tattersall's Club the career of the man they hob-nob with and Wickham makes abosom friend of. To our certain knowledge Weston has been mixed up in two cardplaying transactions (whether creditably or discreditably we leave it to our readers to guess) — one at a certain hotel in Auckland some years ago, and the other quite recently in a Wanganui railway carriage. Of the last we have some interesting evidence, and are only waiting for two or three telegrams and the permission of Mr Jobbings and other gentlemen to use their names to publish the story. Weston has a wife "on the town" at Christchurch, whom he is divorced from. He is thought to bo half silly by most of the bookmakers, and his stock-in-trade, so far as we know them, are a book, a pencil, and a singularly foul mouth. At one time, when Weston was associated with Jerome (a clover, 'cute man, who suppressed Billy's noisiness, and made him do business for the time being in a creditable manner), the pair made money. Since the severance of the partnership, however, Weston has lost and lost heavily. The particular cause of Weston's bitterness against us is a par. which appeared in the Observer of November 19th, stating that .some of the Southern ring had been unable to settle up promptly over the C.J.C. meeting with the Grip stable, and had to ask' for time. There are about 12 or 15 bookmakers down South, and the par. might have applied to all or any of them. Strange to say, however, not one seems at all annoyed about the item save Weston, who fits on the " cap " in a most remarkable manner, though denying flatly that he had to ask for time. "Why, then, is he so angry ?" it will be queried ; and we can only reply, " Don't know." This (Friday morning the assault case is to be tried at the Police Court. We have taken it there, not bocause avo believe Weston will receive any punishment equal to his deserts, but because to do nothing would argue that we wer,e ashamed of the affair, and wished to conceal it. This is not the case. Had our assailant been a gentleman, or anyone a fellow could touch without soiling his fingers, we should probably have retaliated at the time, and taken a licking if our adversary had proved the stronger. To have done this with Weston would, however, have been to play deliberately into his hands. The only way to touch blackguards of the Weston calibre is through the law. They rather like a low brawl, and they don't mind being lined ; but the distant fear of imprisonment lias an immediate eft'eot on them.