The End of the " Jubilee Juggins."

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 312, 31 October 1888, Page 6

The End of the " Jubilee Juggins."

Tjik ine\itabie ond has come at last and the "Jubilee Juggins" been posted at TatLer■sall's. The ring- did not give him much quavtor. Many men have passed settling day after settling day owing thousands, and the bookies have not taken action. ]n Ben/on's case they "gibbeted" him promptly for £1,400. This would not (it is fair to say) have been so it the, "Jubilee" himself had not been personally intensely unpopular. J lib loud swaggering ways, vicious gibes and unconcealed contempt for them made the ring hate him. They smile a curtly, Hattciod grossly, and ad'eoted to think lain "a rare shaip," but all the while they weie looking forward to bhe evil day that has no'v com<£ and promising themselves sweet revenge. Most people werepictty well awarethatP.cnzon was' 'stone bioke"asfar back ;)sSandown. Tlie leviathans at that meeting closed their boo Us. to him "on the nod," and he was driven to betting a few pounds " leady." At Goodwood the "Jubilee" did not put in in appearance, and after the Biighton Meeting Mr Ben/,on was posted. According to all account., his bones have been picked pertec'uly clean Rather moie than two years ago he became of a^e and inhoiiled C 500.000, the whole of which sum has now gone. This boo, though the young fool had by no means bad luck. Mr Fry declared that Ben/.on's tuif transactions, alone would not l>a\e left him £20,000 to the bad. He made toi example sevctal big cnii]>\ this spring. Minting, \ Ayrshiie and .Seabreeze between them won him close "j, upon 150,000, and he also cleared a la rare sum m l J ni to. The last time X saw Ben/on was m the g;\lleiy popularly known as the Polls.' Promenade at the Empire Theatre, ile was staggering about vacuously chunk, and booking childish bets Avith anyone who would speak to him. The man's iiihng passion was a hankering for notoncty, and it legulated all he did. Na tin ally the worst class of fasi youngsteis gathered lound him. Sevoial kindly elderly men tried long ago to give him advice and put the bieak on a bit, but it was not I lie lea^t use. He flouted lather than thanked them. Benson's prime-ambition, curiously enough, was to be thought a " dead shaip" He had all his Jewish ancestois' cunning without, (foitunately) any of then hiains, or el-e his passing across the fcutf fttmainent would lui\ o been lengthier and moie mitclues ous. 1 regret to learn that the young Austialian who chopped £2(),O0U in bets dining the England \. Australia cricket match, has since been distinguishing himself a la Ben/on at Kempton. Woi^e still, he is a fiequent "isiior at Seaton's Field Club, pi obably the most dangeious "hell 'in London. Benzon lost more money theie than anyw hero else. Whilst the Maiquri of '^ueen-beiry^has Keen distinguishing (himself in Australia his ulatives o\ ci heie ha\e not been idle. Loul James Douglas, you may temembci 1 told yon, was lecently impi l^outd toi &oino time tor pestering a young lady, a waid in Chance y, with unwelcomeattent ions Much sympathy was felt foi Lord James owing to a geneial impression that the gnl sielatnen lather than the uiil hei-elt objected to the match. Judge then the surpiise of society when it learnt the othei day that the loveloin nobleman had suddenly espoused Mis llenne&sy, a \oung, eluuming and vvealthy widow, with a comfortable estate in the midlands, and all the worldly goods that an aident sportsman could desne. Curiously enough, too, the waid in Chancery w as an heiress. Meanw Inle theMaiquis"ssfcalw'utbrother-in-law, Sir i3eaumont Dixie, has been converted to Roman Catholicism by his wife. Lady Florence Dixie turned serious coon after that remai kabload venture of hers with dynamitei s. .Society, somew hat sceptical pei haps, gave hei the cold shoulder then for a time, and her ladyship lcsented it. She talked much of the hollowness and frivolity of the woild, and e\entually sought pi lestly counsel. To people who knew " Dandy Beau" and "Frisky Flo" in their salad days theie is something iiresistibly comical in the notion of theii turning serious. One thing is certain, they will both do it thoiouchly. Sit Beaumont Dixie was atone time the Pi nice of Plungeis. A society paper lesuscitates the stoi y of his betting Steel i-MOO he lit his cigai with a wav match one windy, iainy afternoon on Newmarket Heath when theie was no shelter available. " CJot a match '!" quoth the baronet, wit h a big cigar in his mouth. "Only this one, "lCsponded Steel, extracting a limp wax vesta from the icces&es of a damp waistcoat pocket " I'm afraid it ain't much good." " Bet you a monkey 1 light my cigar with it," said Sir " Beau "' lightly. " Done," icplied St el quickly, thinking he'd got a soft " thing " on. But he hadn't. Without the faintest apparent caie the baionet struck the match and successfully lit the cigar. Since then Steel has always cairied fusees. The modern plunger does not seem to have eithei the dash or gentlemanly feeling of the lights of other (lays. To compare a ga^sy windbag like Benzon or a snob like Lord John Kennedy (who knocke 1 a man down the other day for addressing him as " Mister ") with such gallant boys as the last Marquis of Hastings or " Beau " Dixie in his prime, would be sacrilege. They belong to diilerent oiclers.