ANECDOTES OF SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1166, 29 July 1885, Page 3

ANECDOTES OF SPORT AND SPORTSMEN.

The following curious story in con.nection with the Merry Monarch <year (1845) has been related by an officer holding a very high rank in the army, but whose name, for obvious reasons, we must suppress. He — at -that time a young subaltern in a cavalry regiment — and a friend were - coming out of one of the Clubs on the -night before the race, when a shabby genteel-looking man stopped thorn with a pitiful story, that he had not the means of procuring a bed or a ccust. The cornet put his hand in his pocket and gave him a shilling ; but, struck by something in his manner, turned back and began to question him. After some hesitation the poor fellow confessed that he had once been an officer in the army, that he had ruined himself by drink and gambling, and been reduced to beggery. The young cornet, greatly moved by his story, gave him a sovereign and his card, ancl desired him to call upon him in a few days, saying 1 he would see if something permanent could not be done.

The next morning the cornet and the friend who had been present at the interview drove to Epsom. Upon arriving at the coursethey got separated from each other, and while the latter was strolling about looking for his friend ho felt someone touch him on the arm, and turning round, saw the mendicant of the previous night. "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, " but are you a betting man ? Because if you «ire and you will follow my advice, you can make , a fortune." The other answered lightly that he did not do much in that way himself, but that the friend who was with him the previous night had made a heavy book on that day's race. {( Then go to him at once," said the man, eagerly, " and impress upon him to take any odds he can get against Merry Monarch. Everybody says he is not intended to win, that he is started by his owner merely to make the running of another horse ; he is now at a hundred to one. But I know for a fact that Merry Monarch must win, will win !"

. Had the gentleman thus addressed been a little more versed in the ways of the Turf he would doubtless have regarded the tip as a plant of some kind, and troubled his head no more about it. As it was, however, he hurried off in search of the cornet, big with his news. The more knowing one was incredulous, and laughed at the idea of this man being possessed of any exceptional knowledge. " It's the old story," he said : " the gambler who has lost every penny has always an infallible secret to make a fortune by." But his friend had been so struck by his informant's earnestness and pressed the other so hard that he at length consented to risk a hundred upon the tip. As the man had stated, the odds were at a hundred to one, consequently he stood to win ten thousand — and half-an-hour afterwards Merry Monarch was declared to be the winner. The gentleman now fully expected that the mysterious tipster would turn up for his "reward ; but though they searched the course, and afterwards published advertisements in the leading journals, nothing more was heard of him.

The sequel of this story is yet more curious. Years after, while both the friends were on a foreign station, one of them happening to take up an old copy of the " Times," came upon the following advertisement : — " If this should meet the eye of the gentleman who, on the eve of the Derby of 1845, gave a man in Piccadilly a sovereign, and who, following his advice, backed Merry Monarch, he is requested to communicate by letter with 8.H., at Messrs Lincoln and Sons, solicitors, 104«, Gray's Inn, London. The officer, never doubting but that the object of the T advertiser was to obtain some reward for his old service, at once communicated with him. But a greater surprise than ever was in store for him ; a little while later he received a letter dated Halse Halls, Hants, and signed by Bichard Hutchins, and giving a full explanation of every circumstance that had puzzled the gentleman.

On * the day after the race he had actually called upon the cornet at the address he had given him, and, finding he was not up, strolled into a coffeeshop to kill half-an-hour or so. Taking up a newspaper, his eye fell upon an advertisement for a clerk who understood Dutch, to accompany a gentleman who was about to settle as a trader in the Dutch East Indies. It ao happened that Hutchins could speak Dutch like a native, and on the spur of the moment, started for the address of the advertiser, which was some distance out of London. He obtained the appointment, although he had no references, there and then, and within four-and-twenty hours afterwards was on board a ship bound for India.' He remained there until 1852, when the gold fever being then at its height, he started for Australia with some £500 he had saved out of his salary. ; It was not to dig gold, however,- he went to Melbourne, but to build houses — a far more certain spec. In less than six years be had realised a large-fortune, returned to England, purchased a handsome estate, and settled down with an income of two or three thousand a year. His object in advertising was to know whether he could be of any service to the man who had saved his life, for he confessed that had he turned a deaf ear to him on that night on the streets, he had fully determined to cast himself from one of the bridges. That gratitude is a virtue not unknown to the turfite is proved by the following anecdote in connection with the famous Bunning Bein affair. The particulars of that noted turf scandal are too well-known to needrecapitula-

tion here, so we will proceed at xmce to the story. A Captain Osborn had laid heavy odds against that notorious animal, and upon his boing declared the winner, of course looked upon his money as lost. Two days afterwards, as •ho was walking through Eegent-street, a boy stopped him, put a note into his hand, and then disappeared down one of the side streets. The Captain opened the dirty scrawl and read, "Honored Sur — You once did me and my missus a good turn, and I want to doo you the same — Eunning Bein is an impostor, and he von't get the Derby staks, bets must go with staks. I noes all, and I mean peeching ; by all the bets on Orlando as you kan, and you will mak a f ortin, no more at present from your servant, A. Simmons, formerly your helper at Crick."

After considering for a while the Captain remembered he once had a stable helpor named Simmons, and that when this man fell into difficulties he had given him a fiver to pay the bailiffs out of his house. Thinking there might be something in this note, he went down to TattersalTs that same afternoon, and there he heard that strong suspicions were entertained about Eunning Eein's identity. Put-, ting these rumors and Mr Simmon's letter together ho made up his mind to buy up all the bets upon Orlando he could get hold of. He lost no time in acting upon the idea, the latest betting upon this horse had stood at five to one; he bought up a great number of bets at very moderate prices,andupon Orlando being declared the winner, notted about eighteen thousand pounds.