view raw text
EXTRAORDINARY WAGERS IN OLD DAYS DAYSFamous Famous wagers are not so common now as in by ¬ gone days says an English writer In 1070 for instance Lord Digby staked 2 0 that he would walk five miles round Newmarket heath In a cer ¬ tain time barefooted and stark naked and lost by the narrow margin of half a minute the king and all the court being witnesses of the perform ¬ ance anceIn In the latter half of the eighteenth century a Liverpool scientist bet a brother scientist that he would read a newspaper bj the light of a farthing dip at a distance of thirty feet The first scientist merely coated the inside of a shallow wooden box with sloping pieces of looking glass so as to form a concave lens placed it behind his farthing dip and easily read the small print at the distance named The winning of the wager was witnessed by a Liverpool dockmaster who ultimately applied the idea to lighthouse requirements and evolved the modern reflected light lightSeveral Several years ago during a yachting trip of members of the Mersey docks and harbor board A W AAilmer a leading Liverpool cotton broker was presented with a pair of wooden shoes for his birthday and another member of the board offered to contribute a sum of money to two charities if Mr Wilmcr would go to the Cotton Exchange wearing them For sweet charitys sake Mr AVill mer appeared on Change wearing the wooden shoes and the stakes were handed over to him
