Booby-Trap

a favourite amusement of boys at school. It consists in placing a pitcher of water on the top of a door set ajar for the purpose; the person whom they wish to drench is then made to pa through the door, and receives the pitcher and its contents on his unlucky head. Books are sometimes used. Book , an arrangement of bets against certain horses marked in a pocket-book made for that purpose. “Making a BOOK upon it,” is a common phrase to denote that a man is prepared to lay the odds against the horses in a race. “That does not suit my BOOK ,” i.e. , does not accord with my other arrangements. The principle of making a BOOK , or betting round, as it is sometimes termed, is to lay a previously-determined sum against every horse in the race, or as many horses as po ible; and should the bookmaker “get round,” i.e. , succeed in laying against as many horses as will more than balance the odds laid, he is certain to be a winner. The BOOKMAKER is distinguished from the backer by its being his particular busine to bet against horses, or to lay, while the backer, who is also often a profe ional gambler, stands by the chance of a horse, or the chances of a set of horses about which he supposes himself to be po e ed of special information. A bookmaker rarely backs horses for his own particular fancy—he may indeed put a sovereign or a fiver on an animal about which he has been told something, but as a rule if he specially fancies a horse, the bookmaker lets him “run for the BOOK ,” i.e. , does not lay against him. When a bookmaker backs a horse in the course of his regular busine , it is because he has laid too much against him, and finds it convenient to share the danger with other bookmakers.