Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1911 — LONDON PENNY BETS [ARTICLE]

LONDON PENNY BETS

Much Gambling Carried on by Poorest of Children. Boys Deprive Themselves of Necessities of Life to Place Wagers on Horse Races Youngsters Pass Coppers to Tout. London. —T. H. Manners Howe contributes an article to the Graphic which he beads "Demoralized Boy Workers” and which contains a painful a count of the gambling that goes on among the poorest of the children of this city. It Is a subject that previously has been little Investigated, and Mr. Howe’s article has created an unpleasant sensation. Mr. Howe describes how a friend of his, the manager of a large London warehouse, found one of the boys employed In It In a dead faint. He made an Investigation, and Brand that tbe boy was earning less than two dollars a week. He lived with his parents, who took the greater part of his earnings, and allowed him 36 cents a week for his car fare and midday meals. Instead of spending the 36 cents for these purposes, however, the boy walked to and from the office, ate nothing away from home, and spent every penny he obtained In backing horses and repaying the “gutter usurer” to whom he bad been driven when be got Into debt. This boy. says Mr. Howe, was only a type of numerous others —selfstarved, worried young weaklings, with lives Incessantly exposed to the persistent attacks of "those evil geniuses of the street, the penny bookie and petty usurer of the gutter” Mr. Howe goes on to say: ‘1 have studied this question of Juvenile betting for some years, and have seen the evil of It working among the lads. It has become such a profitable business that there are bookies who devote themselves to It exclusively. The transactions are entirely in coppers, and a boy fa allowed to have a bet In

a single penny. But he has to pay for the privilege by submitting to a severe handicap, which, although of-* sering the bait of a proportionately large prize, places nearly all the chances In the hands of the bookie. “This handicap Is embodied in what is known as the composite system. That is to say, the boy is compelled to spot three placed horses in three separate races. He Is not allowed, when betting In coppers; to win by backing one horse only. His task is, of course, a much harder one, and his chances of losing his money far greater. “In spite of this, however, the lads, with wages averaging from 6s to 10s a week, most of which goes to their parents, literally swarm around these pestilent tempters, who haunt the entrances to the big warehouses and printing establishments. At the crowded dinner hour, when the streets are fullest of bustle, the youngsters pass their coppers and slips of paper Into the ready hands of the tout, darting away with their heads full of the prospect of a win or the tip for some fresh race which Jie tout has confidentially Imparted. "Only a little while ago a friend of mine j was standing Idly at a street comer looking about him, when suddenly a small, dlngy-looklng lad thrust something Into his hand and instantly bolted. My friend found he had been presented with a couple of coppers wrapped In a piece of paper Inscribed with the names of three horses entered tor as many forthcoming races. He had evidently been mistaken for some street bookie who—the Inference Is—must have been'ln the habit of appearing In a very decent guise." The Ingenuity of these street bookmakers in baffling the police Is dei scribed as beyond belief. They an£ the other parasites, the small money lenders, who advance sums from if cents up, are responsible for the rtdq of thousands of young lives, tumln# promising boys Into street Via fern hooligans and wastrels.