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MUTUEL BETTING PLEASES FRENCH. Persistent efforts are made to make it appear that the method of betting enforced by the government on French race tracks is unsatisfactory and unpopular, and the Paris correspondent of London Sporting Life gives the truth of the situation and says: "It is really amusing to read some of the remarks about the pari-mutuel, and I cannot imagine who inspires them. All round there is general satisfaction. No one can complain about the prices that are returned, and those who are lucky enough to. back winners often make large profits. I know many men who derive a good income from speculating systematically for places. To show hbw consistent the form is the selections given by the leading journals work out wonderfully well, two winners out of five being the average. "Moreover, the sum that has been raised for distribution among employes, breeders and charities this year will be but little short of one million pounds sterling. Half of this will go to the bank clerks and others who are employed to make the rapid calculations and carry through the operations satisfactorily. About 2,000 clerks are given constant employment, which means an average of about ,000 a year to each, allowing for the expenses of installation, maintenance of offices, printing, stationery, etc. Think of that. Too often this is a side of the question that is overlooked. Then there will be about ,225,000 to be distributed to charities and for the relief of the poor rates, and over 00,000 for premiums to breeders. "Thanks to these arrangements many breeders and owners made raciug in France pay without the necessity of betting at all, which is more than can be said in England, I fear. In a few days we shall have the full statistics for the year, and these should prove very instructive. "If any good could be served by constantly kicking against the pricks, or to speak more correctly, against a stone wall, I could understand the attacks, but there is no chance of reverting to the old order of things, and only a few interested people want such a reversion. The present ministers of agriculture and flnance manage tilings very well, and the public get much better prices than they used to do in the days of the lists. The pari-mutuel has come to stay in France, at any rate. The system would not suit England, where racegoers have a well-organized ring and an open market where they can make their speculations. "Owners who want to bet will find far better opportunities in England than they will here, but, as we are frequently told, betting should be subsidiary to racing, and not racing dependent on betting. Several French owners who have horses worth gambling on will send them to England again next year, and will be able to back them to Win large sums at far more remunerative odds than are obtainable in France, for an Investment of 5,000 would make a horse an odds-on favorite here. That is the jlifference between the English and French systems. The English bookmakers gamble against a favorite, -whereas the French mutuel gambles against nothing, but exacts its eight per cent, from investments on favorites and outsiders alike:"
