Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-27

got right from the Office, discharging his
salary at a broker. A suit his clerks
brought against Walton for the final months
Of their salary is attributable to his earnest
desire to investigate the Pennsylvania
Railroad.
Walton's office was something like Regis.
ter of Wills, or Recorder OF Deeds, it
makes no difference which. When he went
out of it he organized a company which
should sell the inquest of title cheaper than
the beautiful city would give it to its own
citizens. To hunt title in the regular
office required small fortune; but Walton s
company proposed to do the hunting, and
give the anxious inquirer title for about
So OF course, charter was obtained for
this company at Harrisburg, that COM
pendious source of dead mems insurance
companies, credit mobilier, etc. Walton
sold out his interest in the Title Searching
Company, and took the st. James Hotel
when it was improbable. He kept good
house, and it is the basis Of pecuniary
force. Soon after he went in his propensity
for sporting matters showed itself. He be-
came q member of the Racket Club and
his powerful physique could be seen with
the little net-bag in his hands, driving
small ball by the hour at nowhere, and of.
fering to bet anybody that came in that he
could beat anybody at the business.
He had the finest horse on the road, and
challenged everybody, and wherever you
would meet him on the road he would want
to turn a quarter of dollar with you,
head or tail. He got to be terror to
horsemen. because every time he said tail
it was tail, and if he said head, head
turned up. Occasionally he would get two
lightweight boxers and hire hall for
them to punch each other. Restless, in
teresting, bold yet genial, he falsiied the
predictions of men who said he would 90
down like mushroom. He finally went
on the turf-not with horses, but with a
full purse. He says he lost about $50, 600
trying to find out what the turf was. He
finally made up his mind that the turf was
a compound of swindling and ignorance
Thousands of young fellows were going
after the races and keeping poor and miser-
able. while a lot of gambling sharpers were
selling the pools, making books, ETC., and
doing well. Walton said: "There must
/ be human nature somewhere in the bust
ness. 1t is the most rapid way to make
money if you only know how. My object
| in life is to know how"
He began by rigging up his fast mare
before daylight IN the morning, and driy-
ing up to the race track, where he was seen
! talking to the trainers and jockey boys
! Familiarity. Democratic in his manner
with strong will and an almost supernat.
ural instinct for the things of common
life, and with powerful memory, RESTORED
away his secrets of horses and of riders,
and one of the first things he discovered
was that the Jockeys were not half paid,
How much do you get, boy, for winning
that $1,000 yesterday" Walton would
say. 81 get $50 a month, y said the boy,
and the old man gave me 81 for winning
that race" "The old man is a villain"
said Walton. 1.-THE next time you are
going to win race | want to know about
1t, and will give you $780,"
Putting his time and attention closely
at the business betting high and never
low, Mr.. Walton two years ago took
$50 600 away from Saratoga. The Ken
lucky stablemen. said they were going to
shoot him, but Kentuckians do not often
shoot outside of Kentucky, except in Mis-.
souri,. They want State where the laws
are mild, except toward the dead ''They
may shoot and be damned" said The Wal.
ton. "What they come to Saratoga for
is to steal our money, and that is what |
am trying to get from them this year, for
have paid $50, 600 for my experience.
The next season everybody that was not
afraid of Walton wanted to know him.
The very bookmakers and pool-sharpers
felt that they could not do justice to the
turf unless they knew Walton. He is a
blonde, with a large face faded eye, a
large chest, and more inquisitive than a
newspaper reporter. That year he took
from Saratoga about $50, 600, and then
dropped down to Long Branch, and beat
the Lorillards, the Belmonts, and all the
old amateurs of the turf.
Racing associations began to deliberate
whether they should not put big sign up
on the front gate: Everybody admitted
but The Walton" Somebody suggested.
however, that it would look little strange
to shut off the racetrack the only outsider
who ever won anything; and it was init
mated that they had better put up the
sign: "Nobody wanted here but those
who can lose." You could see gathered at
one end OF the hotel porch after the races
the gamblers the horse.owners, the pool
sellers, and half a dozen flats, who had
been losing money for want of Walton's
sagacity, talking about gentlemen" and
honor, and the nobility of the turf, +" and
how The Walton was dragging it down. In
the meantime the great Theodore was en-
tertaining the jockeys and trainers at the
bar or at some of the obscure taverns they
haunted. He felt the pasterns of the
horses to run next day, and the very horses
it seemed felt that they were going to get
$500 to 81 600 from him if they ran. we'll
When he had accumulated and kept
about 500, 900, Mr.. Walton felt the govt
coming into his feet, and it frightened him.
He started over to Teplitz, or some place
on the other side, and went through a
thorough course of diet, walking and water
drinking, and when it was hoped by most
OF the horsemen that he was dead, he sud-
denly turned up at the Derby in England,
struck the right horse, and after little
tour OF the tracks came back with $50, 000
He stayed on this side but a little while,
in the meantime cleaning out almost every
race. course IN the country, and then he
darted back, and on the second visit to
England he made clean in hand $500, 600.
lie found men there who would bet at his
figures. was talking to Mr.. Crickmore
the other night about Walton, and he re-
marked +: They may say what they like
about Walton. He is the first American
who has gone to that side of the water and
bet as boldly as the richest class in En-
gland. He has bet up to the limit of the
ok-makers, and no man says that ne ever !
failed to pay his bets, though it is gen.
orally the other way when people have to
pay him"
Mrs Langtry's costume, on the occasion
of her recent debut as an amateur actress,
was dainty but simple. She wore pink
dress of very delicate shade, with lace
disposed about it, aud pannier. Her lace
collar showed the neck and throat it was
the counterpart of the one in her last por
trait by Mr.. Aiillai-, and her only orna.
ments were diamond-arrow brooch and a
belt with diamond clasp. On one hand
she wore her wedding ring. on the other
small diamond, and couple OF bracelets