winner--as, for instance, the Solicitor-General's
collarbone is worth a shoemaker's whole body, and a Judge's patella is
of more value than a dealer in marine stores and his rising family. This
is a tremendous pull against the company, who not only give long, but
actually incalculable odds; for while Mr Briggs of the second class can
be crumpled up for two hundred pounds, the Hon. Sackville de Cressy in
the coupe cannot be even concussed under a thousand; while if the noble
Duke in the express carriage be only greatly alarmed, the cost may be
positively astounding.

This I certainly call hard--very hard. When you book a bet at Newmarket
you never have to consider the rank of your opponent, save as regards
his solvency. He may be a peer--he is very probably a publican--it is
perfectly immaterial to you; but not so here. The company is positively
staking against the incommensurable. They have no means of knowing
whether that large broad-shouldered man yonder is or is not a royal
duke; and when the telegraph announces a collision, it may chance that
the news has declared what will send every shareholder into bankruptcy,
or only graze them without hurting anybody.

We all know how a number of what are technically termed serious people
went to Exeter Hall to listen to the music of the 'Traviata,' what no
possible temptation would have induced them to hear within the walls
of a theatre. I will not question the propriety of a matter only to
be settled by a reference to conscience; but as the music and the
words--for the airs were sung--were the same, the hearers were not
improbably in the enjoyment of as emotional an amusement as though
they had gone for it to the Queen's Theatre. Now, may not these railway
insurances be something of the same kind? May it not be a means by which
deans and canons and other broad-hatted dignitaries may enjoy a little
gambling without "going in" for Blind Hooky or Roulette? Regard for
decorum would prevent their sojourning at Homburg or Wiesbaden. They
could not, of course, be seen "punting" at the play-table at Ems; but
here is a legitimate game which all may join in, and where, certainly,
the anxiety that is said to impart the chief ecstasy to the gamester's
passion rises to the very highest It is heads and tails for a smashing
stake, and ought to interest the most sluggish of mortals.

What a useful addition, then, would it be for one's Bradshaw to have a
tabular view of the "odds" on the d