{257}
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
FINANCE WITHOUT FUNDS: OR, HOW TO FLOAT A COMPANY.
IN ALL SHADES.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROVERBS.
THE WILL OF MRS ANNE BOWDEN.
THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS.
OCCASIONAL NOTES.
THE LAST YEAR.
No. 121.—Vol. III.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1886.
FINANCE WITHOUT FUNDS:
OR, HOW TO FLOAT A COMPANY.
Amongst the many social and legal anomaliesfor which England has long been celebratedthroughout the civilised world, there are nonemore extraordinary than the rules and customswhich have reference to all sorts of gamblingand obtaining money by chance or by hazard.An example of this was given a short time agoin a French paper, in which a correspondentrelates how he saw a constable take into custodythree or four men who were quietly laying wagersamongst themselves and comparing notes on oneof the great races. This happened a few yardsfrom the Strand, under the colonnade of theLyceum Theatre. Half an hour afterwards—sothe writer states—he was passing the door of alarge house close by where the above capture hadbeen made, and saw the same constable keepingorder amongst a number of cabs and vehicleswaiting for their owners, whilst on the stepsand at the door were a number of gentlementalking and comparing notes. He asked thepoliceman what the place was, and whether anypublic meeting was going on. Considering whathe had previously seen, he was more than a littlesurprised when the guardian of the law informedhim that ‘This is the Victoria Club, the greatbetting club; and these gents are making uptheir books—the Two Thousand stakes will berun to-morrow.’ The writer goes on to say,that however excellent English law may be asa whole, it is evidently not the same for allclasses of men, and that the social morals of thepoor seem to be better looked after than thoseof the rich.
But if the anecdote here related astonished theforeigner, how much more amazed would he beat the rules and regulations, written and unwritten,of what may be called the art of makingmoney by speculation, or gambling. All, or mostof us, would regard with horror—supposing asimilar thing were possible—the introduction ofsuch an establishment as that of Monte Carlointo England, and yet we tolerate and evenencourage that which creates far more wretchednessand ruins many more families than even thegaming-tables. Every day, in almost every paperwe ta