news. The publication of such bad news becomes
the signal for those who have sold what they do not
possess to rush into the market and repurchase.
This operation often causes prices to advance on bad
news, and always steadies the market against dis-
turbing influences, to the great benefit of the real
holder, who is thus enabled to sell at a smaller loss
than would otherwise be possible. Bad news on an
over-bought account — on a market, that is, where the
great majority of the players are holding securities
for the rise on borrowed money — always brings
disaster. From this point of view, the " bear " is
much more useful to the genuine investor than his
opponent ; but morally there is nothing to choose, so
far as the individual operator is concerned, between
the two methods of speculating.

" Bulling " and " bearing," it may be said, con-
stitute the daily business of a large proportion of
dealers, wholesale merchants in the Stock Exchange,
and for them it is legitimate enough to sell accord-
ing to their judgment what they have not got and
buy what they could not out of their own means



STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLING 61

pay for. It is in their power to cut their losses
always when such begin to accrue, and many amongst
them close the day with their books " even." That
is to say, they have neither a " bull nor a bear
open," to use the market phrase. They are mere
traders, whose judgment of the market tendencies
guides them in taking the one course or the other for
the day only. It is altogether different, however,
for the outsider, the man amongst the public, whether
he resides in the City, or at Land's End, or in
Connemara. Such cannot operate with rapidity, and
usually act upon tips and prepossessions, which in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred prove fatal to
their peace of mind and injurious to their pocket.

Is it, then, impossible to induce the multitude
amongst the people to abandon this method of hunt-
ing after wealth without labour, for that is our
only hope ? A change in the spirit of the people,
a higher sense of self-respect, a deeper regard for
the community of interests which would lead a man
to treat his neighbour as a man to be helped, not
injured, would do more to put an end to this modern
habit than any number of rules and regulations. It
has been suggested that gambling could be almost
entirely put an end to were sellers of shares to be
compelled to hand in the name of the possessor,
or the numbers of bonds where bonds are sold.
Undoubtedly this would stop every kind of free-
handed gambling, except by way of options ; but
could any such regulation be established that would
apply to the irresponsible dealings of the outside
gambler through bucket-shops ? I think not.



62 BETTING AND GAMBLING

Moreover, any such regulation would in the long
run be injurious to genuine holders of securities.
Take the example of Bank shares. It is almost
forgotten nowadays that, as a consequence of the
banking panic of 1866, an Act, known as Leeman's
Act, from the name of the man by whom it was
introduced and carried through Parliament, effectu-
ally stopped speculative dealing in Bank shares.
These are now consequently exclusively an invest-
ment security. They cannot be sold without giving
the numbers of the shares and the name of the
holder out of whose possession the shares are to
come. There is consequently never any " bear " ac-
count, that is to say, any account open in unspecified
shares sold for the fall, in Bank shares, and un-
questionably this immunity from attack has been
most valuable in cliecking Bank scares when credit
has become strained. But what would happen
supposing a crisis arose through the failure of one
or two important Banks ? Would it be possible for
frightened shareholders to escape their liability and
sell out before the crisis became acute ? No, it
would not. The shares would simply be unsaleable
on any terms ; there would be no market for them
at all, and each individual holder would be compelled
to face his loss without chance of escape. From a
moral point of view this may be all right — I am not
objecting — but undoubtedly the acuteness of the
disaster would be concentrated to a cruel and most
ruinous extent upon the then existing groups of
Bank shareholders.

Eecently, when a panic threatened in Eussian



STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLING 63

securities upon the Paris Bourse, the official brokers
there notified to the outside market that they woukl
not record sales of the bonds unless the numbers
thereof were handed in witli the order. This at
once stopped speculative selling, but I doubt whether
the consequence was not to weaken the market and
to render the credit of Eussia suspect amongst the
multitude who, speculatively or otherwise, held this
particular national debt. At any rate, the rule was
very soon abandoned, and dealings resumed on the
old footing. In Germany a number of restrictions
and vexatious taxes have been placed upon Bourse
transactions, especially those of a speculative kind,
without increasing the health of the market or really
diminishing the amount of gambling done. The
business is transferred to other markets, very largely
to London — that is all.

Again, it may be said that the English Govern-
ment put an end to one form of gambling, still
prevalent on the Continent, with complete success.
Lotteries were put down by Act of Parliament, and
the trade of the lottery -ticket jobber summarily
stopped. That is true enough, but there is no
analogy between a step of this kind and stopping
gambling in actually existing securities. If lottery
loans themselves had not been discontinued, it
would have been impossible for any Government to
stop the pernicious dealing in lottery tickets. If
we could stop all issues of securities, wipe off the
National Debt, Municipal debts, the intolerable
burdens of Colonial debts, and turn all joint-stock
undertakings into communistic organisations, there



64 BETTING AND GAMBLING

would be an end of Stock Exchano-e gambling at
least in any form now familiar to the public ; but
short of that I do not see how the legislature can
interfere with effect without creating other, and
perhaps worse, evils than those it sought to abolish.
An example of legislative powerlessness has been
furnished by recent efforts at joint- stock company
law amendment. The Act of 1900, which was
going to do so much to purify the atmosphere and
limit the ravages of the unscrupulous promoter and
his " front page " guinea-pigs, has really increased
the mischief, as I have already pointed out. Gam-
bling might be diminished were the State to increase
the taxes upon speculative transactions, although I
am doubtful ; but any such increase would rather
tend to emphasise the absurdity of the Gaming
Acts. Through these Acts it is possible now for
any speculator to repudiate his obligations, and
cases frequently arise in the Law Courts where
losses are in this way repudiated.

Possibly the law might be able to put down
outside speculative agencies, which do an incalcul-
able amount of mischief, and yet even there diffi-
culties stand in the way. Are newspapers to be
forbidden to insert the advertisements of these
"bucket-shops"? Will the Post Office refuse to
transmit their circulars ? How far is it legitimate
or safe, let alone wise, for the State to interfere in
order to protect the fool from the consequences of
his own folly ? I cannot solve the problem ; it per-
plexes me much and often, but the longer I think
things over the less am I inclined to invoke the aid



STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLING 65

of the State in order to put an end to this social
canker.

The remedy must come, I repeat, from the people
themselves : from better instruction, from healthier
views of what constitutes true success and respect-
ability. There is an emulation in extravagance
which has spread widely through all classes of
society during the past two generations, and has
now culminated in a vicious recklessness that does
more to whet the appetite for gambling of all kinds
than anything else. This spirit is not perhaps so
visible in the country village, at the rural parsonage,
or among the petty tradesmen in a small country
town as elsewhere ; not so patent to the eyes of
the onlooker. We do not need to go so far : society
in the West End of London is quite sufficient for
illustration. The habits there have grown in
extravagance within my time to a degree almost
impossible to realise ; and most people embraced in
this word " society," as well as thousands who are
pressing to get within the magic circle, live beyond
their means, struggle to eke out their inadequate
incomes — inadequate through the standard set up by
gambling on the Stock Exchange, often by ruining
themselves.

Why cannot people exercise some moral re-
straint, or at least a trifle of common-sense ? No
system of gambling in existence treats the public
with absolute fair play. The sharper is everywhere,
but far less frequently in evidence on the Stock
Exchange than anywhere else. It is none the less
true that the mere charges of the market constitute

F



66 BETTING AND GAMBLING

a considerable handicap against tlie outside player.
Supposing a man is induced to buy a security, the
price of which at the date of his purchase is £1000.
According to the character of that security, he will
pay from 25s. to £5 to the broker he employs to
carry through the transaction. This charge is
really a very small payment for the work done —
would be quite inadequate payment at its highest,
did the market transact investment business alone.
That money, however, is so much out of pocket
at the start to be set against expected profit.
Then there is what is called the jobber's " turn."
The wholesale dealer in the market has always two
prices. He buys at one price and sells at another,
the difference being his immediate limit of profit.
Assume such difference to be merely half-a-crown
per cent, and the stock bought will cost the outside
buyer 50s. more than he could have sold it at
when the transaction was entered into. Say £5
altogether is thus against the outside buyer on the
deal at the start. The security purchased will
therefore have to rise 5s. per cent before he can get
home, as the phrase is, without loss. If the profit,
however, does not come along within a fortnight or
thereby, arrangements have to be made to carry the
transaction forward to a new account, as it is called.
This involves interest on the money, which cannot,
on an average, be less than 5 per cent per annum,
or roughly another 50s. per fortnightly account. In
addition, there is probably a small charge, represent-
ing £1 or 25s., made by the l>roker for arranging the
fictitious purchase and sale by means of which this



STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLING 67

continuation of the bargain is effected. Let a
speculative purchase be carried on in this way for
a few months, and it will become evident to every-
body that a very considerable rise must occur
before the purchaser is able to sell at a profit after
meeting all charges. In three months he may be
£20 to £25 to the bad, assuming the price to
remain where it was when he bought. If people
would reflect in this way, and make calculations
before they plunged into a gambling transaction of
the sort, they would surely often hold their hands.

With sales for the fall — sales of what a man
does not possess — it is often very much worse,
especially if a man has sold a share or stock on
which dividends accrue from time to time. He
may be saved the cost of interest on money lent to
liim, but has to pay the dividend upon the stock
he sold each time that one is declared ; and should
selling for the fall have been large enough to exceed
the supply of shares available for lending purposes,
he may be called upon to pay a fine for failing to
deliver what he sold, and each fortnight the carry-
over charges have to be deducted from the price at
which he sold, together with dividends when they
come, and fines for non-delivery when the " bear "
is more or less " cornered." In this way it often
arises that a man will not come out with a profit,
even should he round off his speculative sale by
repurchasing 10 per cent below the price he
originally sold at. I give these brief illustrations
to help the outside mind, to warn people off from
this method of trying to make money, but my hopes



68 BETTING AND GAMBLING

are not profound that they will have much effect.
We shall require a world-enveloping credit cata-
clysm to lift mankind out of its present vicious
ruts on to a higher, a more altruistic moral plat-
form.



GAMBLING AMONG WOMEN

By J. M. HoGGE, M.A.

Betting has so long been associated with men that
it is probable there are still many people who have
never considered the evil in its relation to women.
The attention of those, however, who have given
some thought to the problem of betting and gam-
bling has been increasingly turned to this phase of
the question, and it is now certain that among
women the practice is spreading with alarming
rapidity. As in the case of men, the habit is
not confined to any one class of society but has
affected all, so that at the one end of the social
scale costly jewellery is sold to cover bridge debts
and at the other blankets are pawned to put money
on a horse.

If we turn to the evidence given before the
Lords Commission we find numerous side references
to the practice. Here, for instance, is some evidence
given by Chief Constable Peacock of Manchester : —

Q. One of these slips {i.e. bookmakers' slips) you
have given me is from a lady %
A. Yes.

Q. And it appears that she had 8s. on in one day 1
A. Yes.

69



70 BETTING AND GAMBLING

Q. In what position in life would she be 1
A. She is only a working man's wife.
Q. She puts in this slip with 8s., meaning that she
has invested that money on horses in one day 1
A. Yes.

Again, Mr. Horace Smith, a well-known London
magistrate, in his evidence refers to the practice of
bookmakers taking bets from women and children,
and also to the effect betting has on the honesty of
women, giving instances to prove his assertions.
Asked if he thought that women as well as men
bet more than they used to, he replied that he had
no doubt they did, and that he had even had women
bookmakers before him. Mr. Spruce, a Leeds com-
mission agent, also admitted the fact of the woman
bookmaker.

This last statement may come as a surprise to
many readers, but we are able to give circum-
stantial proof of its truth in the following circular : —

Gentlemen in quest of reliable racing intelligence

are invited to communicate with Miss . Only

those who are prepared to pay well need apply, as Miss
is not one of those who give away Tips.

During the latter part of 1903 Flat Eacing Season

Miss decided to commence business as a racing

adviser, and she at once met with conspicuous success,
her selections including — Grey Tick, Cesarewitch ;
Burses, 2nd Cambridgeshire ; Switch Cap, Manchester
November Handicap.

Miss invites all sportsmen in quest of genuine

racing intelligence to join her list of regular wire
subscribers. Satisfaction guaranteed to all regular
subscribers.



GAMBLING AMONG WOMEN 71

Those sportsmen who send for her wires can rely
on winning money. Her terms are, she believes,
higher than those of the ordinary Turf correspondent,
but clients will be fully satisfied that her wires are
worth every penny charged. Those sportsmen who
require wires every day are requested to apply else-
where, as Miss cannot promise to send out more

than two or three selections every week. The source
of her intelligence cannot be divulged, but it may be
mentioned that no other racing adviser is in the same
position as Miss to obtain such genuine informa-
tion.

This lady charges 10s. for a single wire and £5
for twenty.

Mr. Luke Sharp, the Official Eeceiver for Bir-
mingham, Worcester, and West Bromwich, replying
to the Bishop of Hereford, drew attention to per-
haps the most deplorable phase of betting among
women. This consists in the collection of bets by
agents calling on women for other weekly pay-
ments. Here is what Mr. Sharp said : —

I had a conversation with one of my friends who is
very much interested in these matters with regard to
some cases in Worcestershire, and I wanted to get the
particulars, as I did not like to make a statement unless
I could prove it, and I will now read you his letter if
your Lordship desire it. He says : " I do not mention
this in any way to incriminate the man who I under-
stand is carrying on a system of gambling, much as
I condemn such and consider it should be stopped.
I simply brought the matter before you to show how
among the many ways gambling is brought to the
houses of the working classes. It is done by agents
who, while collecting the weekly payments on some



72 BETTING AND GAMBLING

article purchased, also collect for the master who makes
a book, and so induce the women to place money on
any race taking place in any part of the kingdom. I
consider something should be done to put a stop to
such." That is about the worst kind of gambling that I
ever heard of.

Along with this evidence we must also take
that of Mr. Eobert Knight, General Secretary of
the Boilermakers' Society, and a magistrate of New-
castle, who says : —

Betting generally is largely on the increase ; especi-
ally is this noticeable amongst young men and women.
Between the hours of 11.55 and 3.15 a bookmaker was
recently seen to take 236 bets from men, women, and
children in South Shields. . . . Unrestrained by Act
of Parliament, the bookmakers go from door to door in
the streets occupied by the working classes for the pur-
pose of inducing women to bet. . . . When the work-
men are at their work these bookmakers go round and
visit the parts where they live, get hold of the wives
of the workmen Avhen the husband is at work, and get
them to bet. Very often it does not end in betting
with spare money : a woman very often takes the things
of the house and pawns them to get the money to bet
with.

There is still another reference to this practice
in Mr. Knight's evidence, which we give in full : —

Q. With regard to the house-to-house betting,
would you include that in the prohibition {i.e. of
street betting) %

A. I would. I think it has become a terrible evil
— one of the worst I know of.

Q. Do these bookmakers solicit the women or who-
ever opens the door to them â– ?



GAMBLING AMONG WOMEN 73

A. Yes ; they go from house to house, and they get
the women, in the absence of their husbands, to bet, and
I have known in some cases where the money has been
so short that the mother has gone and taken some
things out of the house and pawned them in order to
get money to bet with.

Q. Have you known of bad cases of women betting
with their husbands' money, for example ]

A. Yes.

Q. Do you know many cases of that kind 1

A. Very many. In some cases the husband is not
himself given to betting, but on account of the visit of
the bookmaker to the house during the husband's
absence at work the wife has given way to betting ;
and then by -and -bye the husband has got to know
that this has taken place, and I need not tell you the
result : it is extremely sad.

It wiU be agreed that this form of betting is
particularly mean and despicable, even if it be true
to some extent that women w^ben they gamble are
specially addicted to it. Indeed Mr. Taunett-
Walker, who is connected with a large engineering
works near Leeds, gave it as his opinion, in his
evidence before the Commission, that they were
" worse gamblers than men," and he went on to
say: —

I think it is more serious, because, generally speak-
ing, the working man only bets with his pocket-money,
as he calls it in the working districts, and I think the
woman very often risks the money the husband gives
her for household purposes ; I think she is much more
reckless and excitable under loss than a man, and
therefore much more likely to go to the full extreme
of all the money she has in her pocket.



74 BETTING AND GAMBLING

The present writer has had the privilege of
receiving a large mass of evidence from clergymen,
the police, prison chaplains, officers of the S.P.C.C.,
police court missionaries, district nurses, and others,
bearing on the prevalence of the habit, and it may-
be valuable to supplement with outside testimony
what has already been quoted from the Select Com-
mission on Betting and Gambling.

The Vicar of Jarrow-on-Tyne writes : —

My impression is that it is on the increase, but it is
not easy to tell. For the most part, it takes the form
of lotteries or sweepstakes, women putting in their six-
pences, etc., and winning a possible £20 or so. Now
and then a woman may be seen openly betting in the
streets, but usually it is done quietly. I have been
told that women act as agents for the bookmakers.
Now and then a woman will come to her Communion
whom I suspect of betting, but, as a rule, I think they
feel it on their conscience more than people of the
upper classes do.

The police court missionary at Newcastle-on-
Tyne says : —

I have had considerable experience of evangelistic
work in slum parishes in Newcastle, and it is my
opinion, from careful observation, that there is a very
great amount of betting and gambling among women.
I have known women sell the shoes and stockings from
off their children's feet to get coppers to put on their
favourite horse.

From a pit village the vicar's wife writes : —

The women are so terribly tempted by the men who
come round to their doors.



GAMBLING AMONG WOMEN 75

But possibly the following story, related by a
navvy, may serve better than numerous examples
to exhibit the real inwardness of the bettiug habit
when it attacks the home through the housewife: —

I have my health and strength [he said], and I have
always plenty of work ; the job I'm on now will last
another six months. It's true I have seven children,
but I make no trouble of working for their support.
We used to go to church when we was first married,
my wife and I ; we lived at Southampton then, and we
both thought a deal of Canon Wilberforce. It was
him that tied the knot. Since we came North I have
not gone to any church : wife was taken up with the
children. But I always washed myself, and put on my
Sunday suit when Sunday came round ; sometimes I'd
take the kids for a bit of a walk into the country, and
sometimes I'd take a stroll round with a few of my
mates. Anyways I held up my head straight and
thought I was as good as any — my meaning is that I
thought I had the right to look any one in the face, for
I believed till a week ago that I did not owe any one a
penny piece. It was Saturday even, and up comes to
me a bailift* chap, but I did not know then that he was
a bailiflf ; he shoves a paper into my hand, and I reads
on it " Judgment Summons. Personally served on the
Defendant," and there below I sees my name written
in. I said, " Take it away, I never have aught to do
with such things." I had to take it in, and I found it
Avas an order for £1 : 2 : 3, that should have been paid
long before to a firm called a " Clothing Company,"
trading from a town twenty miles away. Not half a
dozen words did I say to any one that day, just sits
dumb and dazed over the fire ; not a wink did I sleep,
but by Sunday morn breakfast was over I'd my plans
made.

I gets a bit of lead pencil from one of the lads, turns



76 BETTING AND GAMBLING

the children out of the room, spreads out a piece of
paper, and sits myself down. Then I says to the wife,
" My lass, I never have chastised thee, never ; but now
thou hast just got to bring me every bill and every
pawn-ticket, and thou hast just got to think on, and to
tell me of every penny I owe, and if I find thou hast
kept aught back, I shall feel fit to take off my belt and
to thrash thee with it to within an inch of thy life, and
if I have to go to gaol for it, I'll go."

By tea-time that Sunday I'd got that paper about
covered with figures, and reckoned up it come to £70.
There were two doctors' bills, four coal-cart men, there
were three lots of goods from the " Clothing Company,"
and four from the " Furnishing Company," and both
these I were told firms of peddling fellows whom I had
never seen, because they are such curs they never show
their face at a door when the master's in, and when
they have sold their goods (all on the weekly payment
system) to silly women, they go off home by train, so