WHAT IS THE DERBY SWEEP

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1912, 22 September 1874, Page 3

WHAT IS THE DERBY SWEEP

It has become a recognised institution in the most dignified of clubs and familycircles of the most proper sort. It would, indeed be difficult to discover any form of gambling nominally attached to races, which have in reality less to do with horses, jockeys, starters, and winning posts. The persons who around the din-ner-table of an eveniag, subscribe their five shillings apiece, and the gentlemen — many of them distinguished politicians, and lawyers, and grizzled warriors — who deposit their sovereign with the club steward, to form a sweepstakes, may be as ignorant of the horses about to run on Wednesday next, as they are ignorant of those wMch may rvn a dozen yeawhence. They -would as soon try io pick out the names of the three winners as they would try to forecast the next French Ministry. The sweepstakes is really an innocent little lottery, the loss of the stake in which is of no great consequence ; while the possibility of winning a prize may add a little interest to one of the common subjects of talk during the next ten days. They pay in their five shillings, ten shillings, or their sovereign, as the case may be. When the proper time comes — in many instances the drawing will take place to-day — the names of the horses booked to run in the Derby will be written on pieces of paper, blanks being added to bring the number up to the number of the subscribers. Then the wheel of fate— generally a hat, comes round, and the bits of paper are handed out. He who gets a blank is at once put out of his misery ; he may resign himself to the loss of that small sum. He who gets one of the favorites — those horses, that is to say, which are well up in the betting-lists — has several courses open to him. He may simply abide the chance of this horse •winning one of the three prizes into which the sweepstakes money has been divided, or he may sell his chance to some friendly speculator— and when the prizes are considerable, as they generally are at a club, there is no difficulty about that — or he may venture on the more ingenious speculation of betting against the horse he has drawn a less sum than would accrue to him if the horse were first, second, or third ; in which case he is obviously bound to win something. It is said that in quiet country districts, curates of an impressionable nature are frequently inveigled by the fairer of their parishioners into joining the Derby Sweepstakes ; and that they are not at all sorry when their horse is among the , three whose names are sent off by tele- ! graph and pigeon-post on the famous Wednesday. We do not vouch for the fact, but the mere existence of the belief in it is some sort of testimony to the compaz'ative innocence of this form of gambling.. There is still another fashion in which persons who are doubtful may reconcile their minds to risking on [the \ Derby race — they may, if they happen ; to win anything, devote the proceeds to a charity.