The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-23
PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW RACES.
How They Have Dressed Up and
Toned Down of Late Years.
From the Washington Star

From the Washington Star.
There's big difference between racing
crowds nowadays and those of eight or ten
years ago" said the obServant clerk of an
uptown hotel last night. "By racing
crowds mean the people who regularly
follow the aces-bookmakers, horse
owners, jockeys, trainers and the contingent
of outside betteTs, which is growing larger
every season. In the old tine these people
were as tough a looking crowd, both in
dress and features, as you would care to be
caught in. Those who had any pretensions
to style at all wore the loudest kind of
clothes, but like the caricatures of gamblers
you still see occasionally in the illustrated
papers. Their trousers were usually of
immense check or plaid figures; their coats
and vests bound with wide braid and their
ties of the most fiaring colors. They were
pretty sure to have Immense diamonds in
their ties and two or three more scattered
down their shirt front, and their fingers
were half concealed beneath the big dia-
mond or seal rings they wore. Then there
was strut to them that was unmistakable,
and If their muStacheS hadn't been made of
the regulation gambler black by nature, art
corrected the mistake But it was only the
big guns who put on such style as this; and
ths majority of the race-followers wore
SLOUGH hats, no collars, anything at all in
bu6 way VI COdJS anu JIOuSSIS, anu lndub III
a point always to have good deal of their
beloved turf ON their shoes. But now see
the difference. Most of the crowd in the
lobby here is made up of racing men. They
are all decently dressed, only a few over
dressed, and good many of them are thor
oughly well dressed. That is, they have
just about what gentlemen OF good taste
consider the proper thing nowadays. There
isn't flashing diamond in the crowd,
hardly, and their manners are quiet and
gentlemanly. OF course, perhaps, later on
In the evening good many of them may
grow nosier, but get a crowd of men to-
gether anywhere and they are bound to
drink a little and have their fun.
THE JOCKEYS.
"Then look at the Jockeys" the clerk
continued, after bit. "a few years ago
they put up anywhere, and generally looked
upon much as we now Look upon stable
boys and touts. Nowadays the Jockeys put
up at the best hotels 1--WE have number OF
them here, get princely salaries, have their
| private Wallets to groom them and look after
| their wardrobe, and altogether are persons
| of consideration and Importance, whom men
| of good standing are not ashamed t. kno W
| and to be seen With"
"What brought about this big change in
| the character of the turf crowdW the re-
| porter inquired.
"Well, to put it in NUTSHELL" he an
swered, you might say that few years 20
| racing had good deal of the characoerlst-
les of what is called fake nov it is a
| well-organized and recognized profession.
In the old time most of the men who fol-
| lowed the races made money for three
months of the year and the rest of the
| tt ne knocked around the big cities, making
their living in ways that were only know n
! to themselves. They had no stables and no
| incentives to keeping themselves respecta-
| bic. Now racing is going on in diHere t
parts of the country almost from January
| to December, and there is always a chance
for an industrious TURTLE to turn an honest
penny. You would astonished, too to
know how many young fellows there are,
with little money, of good families and
standing i'll society in New York and other
large cities, who regularly follow the races,
and make a hands ONE living by it.
AN ILLUSTRATION.
"There's a quiet we'll behaved young fell
| low in the billiard room there who is an ex-
| ample. know his elder brothers in New
York well. They are first-rate people, and
| that boy is college graduate. He is little
| wild, of course, but he's not bad fellow
What he will be in five years, of course, it
is hard to say. He has followed the races
| for two years now. You will see him It
| Sheepshead, Brooklyn, Jerome. Monmouth
and, in fact, on every prominent track in
| the country. He always dres 'es well and
| doesn't show any signs of dissipation. |
really don't think he is dissipated. Now be
is a type of a large class of you fellows in
New York city who play the races all the
time Oh sort of system. They know the
| jockeys, trainers, owners and stable boys,
watch the horses steadily and carefully, and
in that way are in pretty good position to
know how things are likely to go. OF course
they go dead wrong often, but as they make
it point not to plunge, they avoid getting
in so deep that they caa't get out again.
Yes, told you, racing has got to be great
business, and few people realize how many
thousands O. men-and women for that mat
ter-make their living by it,"