SPORTING ITEMS

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 186, 27 September 1872, Page 6

SPORTING ITEMS

AMEBIC AN SPOETS. Next to trotting-matches, and even ranking before them as regards its universality, I should say that gambling at cards was the principal resource of those in want of something wherewith to get through their spare time in America; for if; is largely indulged in by high and low, rich and poor 'alike, with no distinction whatever, save as to the respective amounts of their stakes. As they are taxed by law, it may be said that lotteries are openly, recognised by the executive, although none are supposed to be permitted to exist in any of. those States incorporated in the Union. This fact, however, is easily evaded by making their head-quarters at Havana, or in some of the territories which are without the,pale of the constitutional law. The drawings of these are to be seen daily advertised in the newspapers, without any pretence whatever ; and the agents of the lotteries or brokers, keep offices called policyshops, which are also duly licensed by the law that is presumed to prevent them, and where you can any day walk in without disguise and buy a share in the next " presentation !" The negroes are great fellows for patronising these places, and spend every spare cent they can scrape together in thus wooing Dame-Fortune,' most unsuccessfully as a rule. There is a legend current in darkey land, that once upon a time an Ethiopian gentleman became a millionaire by dreaming of the lucky numbers 4, 45, and 15, and backing his vision; but the generality of his countrymen who follow in his footsteps do noi by any means achieve so happy a result. The richer and more speculative members of the sporting fraternity play heavily at the different "Faro" banks, or private "hells," which are tolerated sub rosa in New York and most of the other chief cities of the Union. At Saratoga, and one or two other favored localities, gambling is allowed openly, as at Homburg or Baden-Baden; but the "Empire City" and its imitators in wickedness, like the virtuous Boston, makes a pretence of decency, which cannot fail to redound to its credit' when it is publicly known at the' same time that two of the principal judges at the bench, besides the whole crew of the city magistracy, are as great gamblers, or " sportsmen," as they are" characteristically called in the States, as could be found anywhere. I rem ember in the winter of' 66, just after a great razzia by the police on some of the alleged.chief gambling dens of Manhattan, reading a- few mornings afterwards, in the columns of the leading papers, of a great " sitting " held at "Faro," wherein chief-magistrate-Ben Wood had lost the sum of some two hundred thousand dollars to Congressman John Mbrrissy, the. 'ex-prizefighter and backer of Heenan, and now law-maker of the United States. It reminded one of the iniquitous times of the " Finest Gentleman in Europe," when Fox and Sheridan used to pauperise their unhappy descendents at chicken-hazard. Another popular game, r , before it was .suppressed by the police, was called "Kino," somewhat resembling the old German one of Lotto. Each player is furnished with a cardboard, on which are inscribed various numbers, taken at random apparantly from the figures 1 to 70, although they are selected on the strict algebraical theory of combinations, and no sets of cards are altogether alike. When each player had paid his money—fifty cents it used to be I —and selected his card, the proprietor of .the establishment would turn a wheel, as in the drawing of a lottery, and call out

each number that dropped out in rotation, the players, covering up any .that-might, happen to.be, on their cards.similar to the one drawn with a round disk ofavory like a draughtman, and the one who should happen to coyer up all the numbers on his cardboard first called out "Keeno!" and won, the game, with all the stakes of the players, ten per cent, being primarily extracted on each game to pay the proprietor of the'place. As a game rarely occupied more.than ten minutes, the promoter of it used to find it a; most lucrative pursuit, until the police stopped it'as contrary to law. A Dutchman, whbmT met one day on board a ferry-boat, in speaking of it gave me, a very concise description of the game, which I found on witnessing it was true to the letter. He said, "It is a ting vare one mans call out ' Keeno!' and everybodies else say, 'Oh tarn!'"' ..■■■-..■»

If progress in horse-racing is to be accepted as evidence of growth in civilization, the South African diamond fields are making most. satis factory advance. The 'Natal Mercury' absolutely glows over the task of recording the recent brilliant turf-meeting on the Vaal Eiver, which formed " the climax of the diamantine excitement." The races were not scratch or hurriedly arranged events, but were completely organised on a regular programme, and the principal event, the Diamond Meld Plate, was a prize of £3OO. . The course was attended by crowds of spectators" who were counted hy tens of thousands . There was a spacious a well-kept course, policemen to maintain order, crowds of vehicles, gambling tables at which fortunes were lost and won. The receipts for admission to the stand amounted to £595. The spectators belonged to many racesandcame from many and very remote lands. There was a complete babel of tongues, but amidst the great excitement of the occasion order was well preserved. Altogether, the accounts give a curious picture of a great Derby day in the wilds of savage Africa, in a distant wilderness, which only three years ago was unknown, land except to a few hunters or traders. " After all this," says the 'Mercury/ "let no one despair of South Africa!" -.

The Bairhsdal'e (Victoria) 'Courier' gives an account of a long race. Two men who were disputing respecting the merits of. their -horses, made a wager of- £5 for a race to Sale and back, a distance of eightyfive miles. Topsy, the smallest horse, carrying 12st. 81 bis:, won the wager, doing the distance to and fro in something like eight hours.

At the Eandwick Baces, the Derhy was won by Loup Garou; the' Metropolitan by Dagworth, in 3m. SSJs.; and the Randwick Plate by King of the' Eing.