horses running; one, two, and three, when there are at
least eight. When two or more horses belong to the same proprietor and
run in the same race, the Pari Mutuel gives the whole stable, that is to
say, that if one of the horses of the stable wins the race the bets made
upon the other horses of the stable, one or several, are paid as though
laid upon the winning animal himself. This rule applies only to bets
made upon _one_ winner; for the places, it is not a question of the
whole stable, and each horse is paid according to his order in arriving
at the winning-post. When all the tickets are collected, the sum total
of the bets is ascertained, the seven per cent. tax is deducted, and the
sum remaining is divided among the winning tickets. For the _places_,
there are four operations to be performed after the deduction of the
seven per cent.,--first, to subtract from the sum to be divided the sum
total of the bets upon the places. This operation has for its object to
save the stake of the bettor and to guarantee him against the risks of
receiving a sum less than he wagered; second, to divide the new sum thus
obtained by two or by three, according as there are two or three
_places_; third, to divide each half or each third proportionally to the
number of bets on each _place_; fourth, to add the amount of the bet
previously subtracted. All the employes of the Pari Mutuel are strictly
forbidden to bet, themselves, under penalty of losing their situations;
and the whole is under the control of the Minister of Agriculture and
the inspectors of finances.

The establishment of this official regulation was speedily followed by
the opening of unauthorized "pool-rooms" all over Paris, in cheap
cabarets, tobacco-shops, coiffeurs' salons, anywhere, in which the
general public were invited to come in and bet on any horse they chose,
without any further concern about attending the races, and with the
deduction of the smallest possible commission for the bureau, in some
cases fifty or twenty-five centimes. These improvised agencies, in a
great majority of cases, hold no communication whatever with the
Societes, thus depriving them of their commissions, and offer their
clients only the slightest guarantees of good faith. This abuse became
so flagrant that the law had to be invoked.

The popular cafes, cabarets, buvettes, brasseries, chateaux, moulins,
etc., are so numerous as to be entitled to a special chapter. One of the
most famous,