WHAT IS A PLACE.

Evening Star, Issue 3579, 12 August 1874, Page 3

WHAT IS A PLACE.

A profoundly interesting and impDrtant question has just been decided at the Court of Common Pleas as to the meaning of the word “ place ” in the Act for the suppression of bettinghouses, 16th and 17th Yic., chap. 119. It arose in a case stated on appeal from the decision of the justices of Chester convicting the appellant of occupying a place and using it for the purposes of betting. It appeared that on the 14th of July the appellant was on the Chester racecourse standing on a stool 2 feet 6 inches high, over which was a large umbrella of the “gig” variety, capable of covering several persons, the stick being made in six joints, like a sweep s brnsh, so as to be taken to pieces, and being fixed in the ground with a spike. It was a showery day, but the umbrella, it was proved, was kept open wet or dry. On the umbrella was painted in large letters, “ G. Bows, Victoria Club, Leeds,” and a card was also exhibited bearing the legend, “We pay here all bets first past the post.” The question was, whether Mr Bow s stool and umbrella together constituted a “ place ” within the meaning of the Act, and the court have decided thqt they do, and affirmed the conviction by the magistrates. The spot, they held, was ascertained for the time by the spike of the umbrella being put in the ground, and it was certainly a place. Indeed, the court were not clear that it was not an “office.” The umbrella, which was capable of covering several persons, was “ practically an open tent..’ The words, «We pay here all bets first past the post,” meant, “If you will resort or come under this umbrella, here is a place where you will be paid. Great importance, it will be seen, was attached to the fact of the umbrella being fixed to the ground. A very nice question of law would have arisen if Mr Bow’s umbrella had had no spike and had been merely held over his head by ah attendant. Would his stool alone-bave constituted a “ place”? and, if not, would a camp-stool, armed, as some are, with a spike, differ from an ordinary three-legged stool in this respect?—‘Pall Mall Gazette.’

New Definition,— A wag calls bigamy “ Utahhsing the female sex. i P l ? r ß( ? ne i’ a P e “y court was asked by the udge if he had any counsel. “ Yes," he said. . I J had e W«4 an old baldheaded man to defend me, hut I don’t see him round, and I rather guess he’s out for a drink - ”