THE " STAR'S " TIPS. P ERHAPS some of those who

have not, as we have done, followed the betting news in the Star will think we are exaggerating and overdoing our allegations. In order to show that this is not so, we may say that for the last three months the writer of this article has dipped into the betting columns of the Star, and is obliged to declare that it is no exaggeration to say that this paper does incite its readers to bet on horse-races. The Star appears to have no less than three chief tipsters at work. To prove our assertion, we take the following extracts from the Star of Wednesday, the day on which we write :— " My selections are :- 2.0.—City Plate—PLOWER SAINT. 2.30.—Badminton Plate—MEDLICOT. 3.15.—Chester Cup—MARCO FRASER.* 3.50.—Dee Stand Handicap—MAGNETO. 4.20.—Stewards' Plate—AVANTI.

4.50.—Prince of Wales's Handicap—CORINTHIAN. 5.20.—Stamford Handicap—APOPLEXY.

Place Horses.

3.15. ACCURATE ; 3.50. PINE KNOT. CAPTAIN Cow.

FOLLOW FORM.

For the benefit of believers in the book the horses are given below that on form have the best chances

2. O.—BLACKSTONE. 2.30.—MEDLICOT.

3.15.—MARCO FRASER.

3.50.—MAGNETO. 4.20.—A VANTI.

4.50.—CORINTHIAN. 5.20.—APOPLEXY.

A CHESTER DOUBLE. (BY TELEGRAPH.)

CHESTER, Wednesday Morning.—Selections :—

3.15.—Chester Cup—MARCO FRASER. 4.50.—Prince of Wales's Welter—CORINTHIAN.

STARLIGHT.

UNO'S MIDDAY FINAL. CORINTHIAN.

NAPS AT A GLANCE.

Sporting Life (Anger)—DIBEI.

Sporting Life (Solon)—BLACKSTONE.

Morning Advertiser—PIPE OF PORT.

Daily Mail—BLACKSTONE. Morning Leader—APOPLEXY.

Daily Express—APOPLEXY. Daily Mirror—MARCO FRASER. Dail Sketch—MAGNETO. (Occasional Special) MOCASSIN.

J Old Joe—v.T.Tv.A.BETTA.

Sporting Chronicle (Kettledrum)—APOPLEXY.

Sporting Chronicle (Travelling Correspondent)—FLOWER SAINT. Racing Specialist--MARCO FRASER (e.w.), DARTOI, ARISTOCRACY. Reynolds—HARESTONES."

This of course by no means exhausts the betting incite- ments in Wednesday's Star. There are more than two columns headed " Chester Cup Day : List of Starters who are After the Cheese," which contain other tips. For example, the first paragraph begins : " My Newmarket man telegraphs : ' At Chester I fancy the following." Then comes a list of horses. This column is not merely confined to business. It is enlivened by matter of a more literary order, including letters from gentlemen who appear to have benefited by " Captain Coe's " " Finals," or who are willing to assist the " Captain," and therefore the controlling proprietors of the Star in their public work of " spotting " winners :— "Dear Coe,—A dream I had on Sunday night tells me that

Elizabetta will win the Chester Cup. H. S.

Caro Capitano,—Oggi it Chester Cap lo guadagna Glade ***. Marco Fraser 2, Great Peter 3. Sperando the questa volta metta it naso davanti, it cavallo e' bnono, ha gia guadegnato In steam

corm due anni fa, CONTE POLENTA.

Maya' have a good time down at Chester, Let this merry month furnish a tip,

Pack up all that you've got and bundle the lot On the daughter of Desmond and Gyp. A. H.

Great Peter! What's gain tae tak th' Chester' cheesecake' th* day, Capting ? Ivvery yin in th' race—if they're lucky. Here's

ma opeenin' ol:—Dibs, 1 ; Specifical, 2 ; Lagos, 3. Mak-wechts : Menwinnion, Corinthian, Apoplexy. Mair than likely I'm wrang, but we canna a' be richt. That's ae comfirt in th' bizzness. Tooraladdy !—Yours, mebbe 'Accurate,' a'tho' Quixotic,'

Mecus.s.

Dear Coe,—No 13 again. Ute, the first winner at Chester, ran 12 times last year without gaining a bracket. Most of the

followers must have been real tired. Orrs or Taint.

Avanti is the Italian for 'Forward !".A.vanti, ballerina; i.e., Hurry up, you ballet girls,' has come to signify Play up for the cokernuts!' By the way, when Conte Polents writes`ciao Capitano ' he means Ta-ta, Captain.' It is in the dialect of Northern Italy."

There are plenty more specimens of this kind, but we must pass such specially selected paragraphs as " To-day's Finals " in order to note a large double-column table in which are tabulated for the benefit of bettors " Selections from All To-day's Papers : Chester." Here the man who is in a fever to make his fortune by putting something on a horse can, with the minimum of trouble, find out what horse is most favoured by the prophets of twenty-five different newspapers. We had intended to give some extracts also from the Morning Leader, but must be content to state that they are of much the same quality as those contained in the Star, though a good deal less provocative in style. We ask—and we cannot help believing that we shall obtain a response—that the proprietors of the Daily News and the controllers of the Rowntree Trust, and the other members of the Rowntree and Cadbury families who control the Star and Morning Leader, shall without delay put an end to " Captain Coe," "'Old Joe," " Starlight," and other tipsters, and make the contents of the Star and the Morning Leader conform to the views of those who control those papers. Of course it may be, as we have said already, that we are under a delusion, and that the trustees of the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust and Mr. A. S. Rowntree do not take the view about betting which we believe them to take, but, on the contrary, hold similar views to those held by the mass of English newspaper proprietors. In that case of course they have a right to act as other newspapers do, and to provide facilities for and give incitements to betting. If, however, we are not wrong as regards their opinions, they have, we hold, only one course open to them as good citizens. The case of Mr. H. T. Cadbury, the director of the Daily News, and the Daily News Company, Limited, in its corporate capacity is different. They have already by their action in suppressing betting in the Daily News shown what their opinions are, and it seems to us that they are at present speaking with two voices, one for and one against betting. We cannot therefore be under any misapprehension if we say that they must do their best at once to bring about a change in the policy of the papers we have mentioned. No man can serve two masters. You cannot hold that betting is a serious evil to the commonwealth and continue to purvey to the public tips and other incitements to betting. Still, experience shows that there may always be an explanation of the apparently inexplicable, and at any rate no man should be condemned unheard. If then the proprietors of the Daily News, Mr. H. T. Cadbury, Mr. A. S. Rowntree, and the trustees of the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust, can show that they may consistently and without any taint of hypocrisy or cant continue to hold their present views, and yet continue to be responsible for the betting news and tips in the Star and Morning Leader, we shall be perfectly willing to acknowledge that we have been in error in calling their action in question and to apologise for that error.

Perhaps it may be =id that it is impossible to stop a paper publishing tips if it has once begun to do so. That, however, can be shown to be a mistake. The writer of these words owned for some four years a weekly news- paper which before he bought it had been accustomed to publish, though in a restricted form, betting advertise- ments and racing tips. Though not a holder of the vice theory of betting, he instructed the editor of the paper to publish no more " tips," and those instructions were carried out, certainly in the spirit, and he believes in the letter, till some three years ago, when he parted with all control now reverted to its old position. The notion that a paper cannot live without betting tips is not supported by the facts. Witness the honourable tradition of the Manchester Chardian,—a paper which has, we believe, never in its existence published a betting tip.