Part 15

Mr. ROBERT KNIGHT, J.P., Newcastle, for twenty-nine years secretary of a Trades Union numbering 50,000 members, had thirty-two years’ experience of the working classes. Betting was largely on the increase among them, especially young men and women. In three and a half hours a bookmaker in South Shields was seen to take 236 bets. Bookmakers went from door to door inducing women to bet. Some took as little as sixpence. Employers found that intelligent, concentrated effort cannot be got from minds absorbed in betting. He would neither employ nor trust men who indulged in it. The facilities offered by the press are largely responsible. Betting among the young had become rampant. Lads of bright intellect were found to develop cunning instead of character. If the betting craze was not checked the sober youths of Germany would take the reins of the commercial world. The odds, tips, and bettings news should be abolished from the newspapers. The Trades Unions endeavoured to stop betting, and would not appoint a man known to indulge in it to any place of authority or trust.

Rev. J. W. HORSLEY, M.A., J.P., Rector of St. Peter’s, Walworth, for ten years prison chaplain, during which time 100,000 people passed through his hands, said betting was a frequent source of trouble. In one gaol there was a whole wing set apart for these prisoners. It was now increasing more than ever. He considered the example of the aristocracy greatly to blame; and said that if the King would stay away from race-courses where professional betting went on it would do more than anything else to assist in putting an end to it.

IV

OPINIONS OF EMINENT MEN ON BETTING AND GAMBLING

THE LATE CHIEF-JUSTICE RUSSELL.—“Street betting is a most undesirable practice. A state of things exists which, if it can be stopped, ought to be stopped.”

Mr. Justice WILLS.—“When I first came upon the Bench I used to think drink was the most fruitful cause of crime, but it is now a question whether the unlimited facilities for illegitimate speculation on the part of people who have no means of embarking on it are not a more prevalent source of mischief and crime even than drink.”

Mr. Justice HAWKINS.—“I know nothing more likely to ruin a young and inexperienced man than the system of betting which goes on around us.”

Mr. Justice GRANTHAM.—“Gambling with bookmakers is the cause of more crime and misery than anything else in the land.”

Mr. Justice DARLING.—“No one could attend the Civil and Criminal Courts without knowing that many persons spent a much larger amount of time in betting than they devoted to their own business.”

Mr. HORACE SMITH (London Stipendiary Magistrate).—“Nearly every case of embezzlement I try has resulted from betting, and then to pay their losses they rob their employers.”

Alderman SUTTON (Newcastle Magistrate).—“The working men of the north of England put money on horses, and when they lose take their employers’ property.”

CHAIRMAN OF MAGISTRATES (Seacome Bank embezzlement case).—“The whole secret of the wrongdoing seems to be in the systematic agency employed all over the country to tempt men from the path of rectitude and virtue.”

Mr. BROS (London Stipendiary Magistrate).—“Betting is generally the downfall of clerks and servants who are charged with embezzlement.”

CORONER FOR MID-SURREY.—“The poor lad, like many thousands of others, was led away by the fallacious idea that he was going to make money by backing horses. Men earning fifteen or twenty shillings a week cannot afford to lose sixpence in betting.”

CHIEF-CONSTABLE OF SOUTHAMPTON.—“Street betting is a disgrace to the town. One man is making £1000 a year by it.”

BIRMINGHAM OFFICIAL RECEIVER.—“Half of the bankruptcies which come before me are due to gambling.”

General WAVELL.—“I have been speaking to an officer, who says it is perfectly piteous to see the way our young soldiers, drummer boys, trumpeters, and others rush off to get the halfpenny newspapers, not to ascertain how their comrades are faring, but simply to get the betting odds and nothing else.”

BRADFORD SCHOOL BOARD RESOLUTION.—“The attention of the Board having been called to the general prevalence of betting and gambling, and the appalling evils arising therefrom, it is hereby resolved that the teachers be requested to take every opportunity to point out to the scholars the injurious effect of the vice.”

Mr. CURTIS BENNETT (Marylebone Police Court).—“I am convinced from my experience as a Magistrate that nothing is so productive of crime among young people as street betting. It is an evil far worse than drunkenness, and I agree with Mr. Justice Wills that it is the greatest curse of this country.”

CHAIRMAN OF CROYDON BENCH.—“It seems a very good paying game. I think the Government, as soon as they have time, will have to take into consideration whether the law should not be altered.” These remarks were called forth by a bookmaker who had been summoned, producing a handful of sovereigns, and suggesting that it would save time for him to pay the fine at once without the evidence being heard.

LUTON TOWN COUNCILLORS:—

Alderman OAKLEY, J.P.—“The Watch Committee reports show that betting is much on the increase. It is even affecting school children.”

Alderman DILLINGHAN.—“It breaks up many homes and leads people to rob their employers. It is the forerunner of drunkenness.”

THE DEPUTY MAYOR.—“It is a grave temptation.”

Mr. WARREN.—“It is bringing a great calamity on the land. It is one of the biggest evils England has to contend with. The young people in Luton are led away to an alarming extent.”

Alderman Sir J. RENALS.—“Street betting has become an intolerable nuisance in the city.”

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE (Lord ALVERSTONE).—“Sport never ought to be of necessity associated with gambling or betting. Those who had to do with the administration of the law knew that there was nothing in their great towns—and he was afraid in the smaller ones too—that brought more people in the humbler walks of life misery and ruin than the betting agents.”

BISHOP OF LIVERPOOL (Dr. CHAVASSE).—“He called upon them, in the name of their Master Christ, to rise up and fight this awful foe of gambling and betting, lest they ate the heart out of the Church and nation, and a just God punished them with a righteous retribution.”

RECORDER OF BATH (Mr. H. C. FOLKARD).—“He was afraid that the pernicious practice of betting and gambling was becoming very prevalent throughout the country. Many gave way to the evil who were in good situations and positions of trust. The bookmakers were a great evil.”

Lord CHARLES BERESFORD.—“The worst of all vices. On board a ship it is particularly pestilent. Its practice has destroyed many fine characters, and has been the means of causing unbounded misery to innocent and deserving persons.”

Sir GEORGE WHITE (of Ladysmith).—“I know the evil effects of gambling. Society in which gambling is promoted fails in all the higher aims. Instead of its members being drawn into real friendship, they generally dislike and distrust each other.”

Admiral Sir H. H. RAWSON.—“I have no hesitation in saying that next to drunkenness I think gambling is one of the worst and most dangerous of the vices. I have always set my face against it, as I have seen three or four cases where it has led to most terrible consequences. It becomes a regular mania and an absorbing business.”

Admiral SWINTON HOLLAND.—“It is ruining some of our finest English sports, specially football.”

PRINCE LOUIS OF BATTENBERG.—“As regards a man-of-war, there is one aspect which is not always borne in view. Two men of different service rank gambling together; the senior loses money to the junior, perhaps more than he can pay at once. Think of the effect on discipline.”

Mr. J. G. BUTCHER, M.P.—“I am disposed to think (though I have no accurate information upon the subject) that the practice of betting and gambling prevails amongst larger sections of the community than in former times. If that be so, I regard it as a national calamity. Once the practice is begun it is exceedingly difficult for those who engage in it to limit their losses to such sums as they can easily afford to lose. The best forms of sport—such as cricket, football, and even horse-racing—can, in my judgment, be most fully enjoyed without staking money on the result.”

Mr. RICHARD BELL, M.P. (Secretary Amalgamated Society Railway Servants).—“There is nothing, to my mind, which is so damning to the progress of the working classes as the gambling which is now practised in every town in England. This is not, unfortunately, confined to horse-racing, but it has now spread to football, cricket, and almost everything else. During the period of prosperity, when a large number of workers are earning good wages, it is regrettable to think that they do not take care of the few extra shillings they then receive, but indulge so freely in drinking and gambling, so that when they are meeting with a little depression they are entirely at the mercy of the employers, and have to put up with circumstances which they otherwise would not.”

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.—“I heartily wish you success in your effort to stay the progress of this terrible plague, which is bringing misery and ruin upon thousands of our fellow-countrymen.”

Mr. Justice RIDLEY.—“The Gaming Act, though designed to prevent betting, has not brought about that result.”

COMMON SERJEANT OF LONDON.—“Gambling in hopes of realising large profits by chance, then when they lost instead of winning they were impelled to reimburse themselves by dishonesty.”

Mr. Justice BUCKNILL.—“This betting curse, which is being carried on in a shocking manner, has got to be put down with a severe hand, and, so far as I am concerned, I will do so to the utmost of my power.”

JOHN HAWKE (Hon. Sec. National Anti-Gambling League).—“Gambling is becoming a worse evil and a more serious cause of poverty than drink.”

Rt. Hon. Sir HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN.—“I long ago formed the opinion that betting and gambling come next to drink (and doubt even if they come below it) in the measure of the curse they bring upon society.”

The late G. F. WATTS.—“I look across our English world and see clearly and distinctly the two vices which, more than anything else, are obstructing the wheels of progress: drinking and gambling. They are apparent to the least observant of men. You cannot take up a paper or walk through the streets of a city, without realising the awful ruin which these two evils are working in the world. But if this is the general agreement of mankind, why is there no concentration of national energy on the subject? Think how great a revolution would be wrought in English character and in English health if legislation set itself sternly to the task of preventing drunkenness and gambling. Just those two things! Is it not possible for political parties to sink their party differences, and to combine to fight against these two root causes of national degeneration and national unrest? Surely, surely!”

V

A NOTE ON PEDESTRIANISM

The following notes may prove interesting, as showing how attempts are made to corrupt one of the best and healthiest of all sports.

MR. CHARLES SOUCH says:—“I am now groundsman for the Cheetham Cricket Ground, Cheetham, Manchester, and I reside near the ground. I was for several years groundsman for the Manchester Athletic Club, Fallowfield.

“I have taken a prominent part in sports and athletic meetings all over the country for the past twenty-three years, and am still running. I have fifty-five medals, watches, clocks, cups, etc., etc., which I have won to any number.

“In 1892 I won the Northern Cross-country 10-mile Championship. I ran second to Parry in 1888 in the National Challengeship. I could fill pages of races I have taken part in and athletic meetings I have attended, but you want my experience of the honesty or otherwise of persons competing and taking part in these sports. Well, my opinion is, and I may say it is perfectly plain to be seen by any one who likes to look, that wherever there are betting men and bookmakers at athletic meetings then the running is dishonest. It is true that I have attended amateur athletic sports in a small way where absolutely no betting was done; then every person competing tried his very best, but this is the exception.

“On one occasion, at a small meeting near Coventry, I was on the scratch at a half-mile hurdle race. I was giving 100 yards limit. Just prior to the race starting, a man—one of the competitors—came to me and asked me to stand down,—meaning for me not to win,—and said he would make it all right for me. I refused, and meant to try and win, as I may say I always did. This was done in order to allow a certain man to win, and the man who asked was in league with a bookmaker. During the race, and when at the second hurdle, the man I have just referred to was in front of me. Whilst jumping the hurdle he purposely tumbled in front of me and fetched me to the ground. He detained me a little, and the result was his man got first and I was second. This was a flagrant case, and I complained to the officials, but nothing came of it.

“In 1889, on Whit-Monday, I went to Wrexham and took part in several events at a meeting there, and in the three miles scratch race, when I had run about the half distance, a bookmaker came on to the course and caught hold of me; I wrestled with him and got away; I ultimately won the race in spite of this obstruction. Nothing was done to this man, although he was known.

“I have known in my time any number of men who called themselves amateurs and who regularly attended athletic meetings, and after having won their ‘heats’ absolutely made no attempt to win the finals. Some of these men I have known to be kept by bookmakers and never did any work, but attended these meetings and worked in collusion with the bookmakers.

“I have often been stopped in the middle of a race by other runners stepping in front of me, causing me to go round them.

“I could go on recounting similar experiences, but there is a sameness about them all. There is not one quarter of the so-called amateur athletes who try to win, and what I say is quite plain to be seen by any one.

“Another common practice is when the runners are leaving the dressing-tent to hear whispers that so-and-so is going to try and so-and-so is not trying, and in many instances, to my own knowledge, the thing is arranged before they leave the tent.

“During the time of a meeting certain men who have entered as runners can be seen leaving the tent just as the runners are turning out and go to the bookmakers, giving the tip as to who is to try and who is not. Finally, my opinion—and, as I have already said, I have had twenty-three years’ experience—is that the whole system is rotten. The same system obtains in connection with cycle racing, only more so. I would add, however, that if you clear the ground of betting men and bookmakers then you will have more honest sport; as it is at present it is absolutely dishonest. I have been afraid after a race to meet some of these people, and usually got out of the way as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, on one occasion when going for my prizes some fellow—no doubt a bookie—struck me from the crowd a violent blow on the eye, making it black, simply because I had refused to be bought. I have been offered sums of money times and times beyond number to sell myself to them, but I always declined. Perhaps if I had lent myself to that practice I would have had more money now than I have.”

VI

TIPSTERS AND TIPSTERS’ ADVERTISEMENTS

LORD DURHAM, speaking at the Gimcrack Club Dinner in York on Friday December 9, 1904, drew attention to the evil of the tipster in terms which caused quite a commotion in the sporting press of the country. He said that “representations were made to clerks of courses that they should saddle themselves with impracticable duties, and race-course managers were instructed how to conduct their meetings by people who had not the slightest knowledge of race-courses, and paid no consideration to the material factors that in many cases hampered their action. He knew that some people paid very little attention to what sporting writers said, but there were thousands of people who were unable to judge independently, and if they believed what they read would gain a false impression of the Turf, and of the habits and characters of its supporters. His object in mentioning this matter was twofold. One was to warn the racing public not to pay too much attention to those writers, and the other was to suggest to such sporting newspapers that professed to uphold the morality of the Turf—and he mentioned the _Sportsman_, the _Sporting Life_, and the _Sporting Chronicle_, which he challenged to prove their good intentions—a very desirable reform, and that was simply to refuse to publish what was known as tipsters’ advertisements, those scoundrels who exercised a most pernicious influence upon the Turf. The representatives of the _Sportsman_, the _Sporting Life_, and the _Sporting Chronicle_ were examined upon this very question before the House of Lords’ Committee, and every member of that Committee knew very well that the members of the Jockey Club and the owners and trainers all expressed their utmost detestation of these tipsters. They knew that there was not a trainer in England who could not tell them what a curse these tipsters and touts were amongst their stable lads. They attempted to suborn them and to bribe them to betray stable secrets. What were stable secrets after all? He considered that they were merely the fulfilment of his duty on the part of a trainer, whose business and desire was to keep his employers informed as to the progress and the wellbeing of their property committed to his care. Outsiders had no more right to try to obtain by illicit means information on these matters than a burglar had to break into a house and steal property. If these sporting newspapers denied that these tipsters obtained information by improper means he thought they would be on the horns of a dilemma. If they did not obtain this information by corrupt means he should like these sporting papers to explain why they accepted money from tipsters for advertisements which professedly did claim to obtain this information.

“The alpha and omega of the tipster’s trade was misrepresentation. It was to their interests to say that all trainers were disloyal to their owners, and that jockeys pulled their horses. A friend of his this year out of curiosity subscribed to one of the most notorious of these tipsters. He wrote to say that he was not satisfied with the result, that he had expected some more reliable and exclusive information for his money, that he could not go on subscribing for such bad tips. The man replied with a long rigmarole to the effect that the horses had been fancied and backed by their owners, but that they raced most peculiarly, and added, ‘but what could they do when the jockeys who rode them would not let them show their true form.’ This tipster advertised largely; he had hundreds and probably thousands of clients, and if he had written in a similar strain to many of these foolish creatures, was it not easy to understand why small owners and trainers were made out to be rogues. I am sure,” said Lord Durham with emphasis, “there is not an honest man on the turf who will not agree that these tipsters and their circulars should be suppressed. I would commend the example of the _Truth_ newspaper, which for some years has most zealously denounced some of the most notorious of these wretches. I am certain I have made a speech which will not be very highly eulogised by the sporting press, but if I have on my side some of those honourable and straightforward sporting writers to whom I have alluded as being too few in number to counteract the evil of the majority, I will bear with equanimity any adverse criticism” (_Yorkshire Herald_, December 10, 1904).

The following extracts from _Truth_, February 11, 1904, will serve to emphasise the accuracy of Lord Durham’s observations:—

_Turf Tipsters, Betting Agents, and System-mongers_

Whether one agrees or not with Lord Beaconsfield’s uncompromising condemnation of the Turf as a vast engine of national demoralisation, it is impossible to deny that the racing world provides an exceptionally fertile field for the practice of fraud and trickery that is akin to fraud. Nowhere else do knaves prey upon fools so easily, so safely, and so profitably. Take first the case of the tipsters. It is well within the mark to say that nine-tenths of these gentry live by lying. If they did not tell lies they could not sell their tips. Many of them circulate absolutely fictitious lists of winners that they have found, and practically all of them make pretences as to the sources of their information and the infallibility of their prophecies that they know to be false. If their judgment or prevision enabled them to foresee the results of races with the consistency that they claim, it stands to reason that they would not be offering to sell tips to all and sundry when, however small their capital at starting, they might be piling up a fortune by backing horses for themselves. But this obvious consideration never crosses the mind of the gullish herd of backers. No story of his successes that a tipster puts forward is too steep for them, and as fast as one lot of dupes is disillusioned he gets another. The following is a list of some of the false prophets of the Turf whom I have pilloried during the past twelve months:—