Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-22
LUCK OR PRovIDENCEg
Showing How Hard-Earned Savings Van
ished in a Canter.
From the New Yort Tirnas

LUCK Or PROvIDENCEg
Showing How Hard-Earned Savings Van
ished in a Canter.
From the New York Times.
have friend who is a newspaper maj
and bit of cynic | met him upon tn,
steps of the Aston House one afternoon las
week. He was in discursive mood anC
the subject of his discourse was luck
Something had gone wrong with him anC
he was saying things about his luck tha
would not look well in print He moral
lied thus:
There are two kinds of superstition
persons, religious persons and gamblers
What the religious man attributes tc
Providence the gambling man attribute:
to luck. The scientific man says there i.
no luck, and the late Richard A. Proctor
wrote columns about draw poker to prove
it, and then died of yellow fever. | don't
pretend to know anything about the mat.
Ter, except that things go awfully contrary
sometimes. And that reminds me of a
| story.
"Do you remember Dr. S., that horse
racing editor? No. Well, he was widely
known in his day. / don't think a mans
wife ought TO be too hard on him. He
may not be driven to open rebellion, but
he is apt to wish he had not married.
| Now, the doctors wife was pretty hard on
him in one way. She used to come down
to the Office every payday and make him
hand over his salary to the last cent.
Then every morning before he started out
she would give him enough money for car
fare and light lunch.
Still, the doctor managed to keep a
cheerful countenance in public, and by
dint of adroit fnanciering and careful bet
ting-for he was bit of a sport-to lay by
a snug little sum which he had in bank en-
tirely unknown to his wife. Though
there is no telling how he ever got his first
dollar to bet, unless he borrowed it, he
was on the whole pretty lucky, and he
kept adding TO the fund in bank until it
reached trihe above $1,000. If | had
been the doctor | never would have al
lowed the balance to hang about that I'M.
lucky number thirteen. | would have
stopped at twelve and waited until / could
make it fourteen or fifteen. But perhaps
he did not think of that.
well, one day during the season at
Monmouth Park, after the doctor had
placed his own little stake on a sure thing,
he sat in the reporters stall waiting for
the first race to start. The horses had not
yet come to the post when boy tapped
him upon the shoulder and said that lady
on the grand stand wished to see him.
The doctor looked in the direction indi-
Gated by the boy and was dismayed to see
his wife. She had never to his knowledge
attended a race before, and he was even
yet doubtful whether he was gazing at the
real woman or at an apparition. But she
was reckoning to him with more vigor
than could be expected of a ghost, so he
got out of the stall and went to her as fast
as possible.
"Why, my dear, this is an unexpected
pleasure began the doctor, but his wife
checked him by saying: oh shut up l
want to ask you something about this
race
"Then as the doctor shut up she contin-
ned is there horse to start called I'm
pecuniosity7
"'Yes, ms dear but why do you ask?
"'Well, here is five.dollar bill; | wish
you would go and buy me ticket on I'm
pecuniosity.'
'The doctor thought his wife had gone
crazy. She, who all their married life
had preached to him against the sin of
gambling, to actually bet on horse race.
Impossible She was only laying trap
for him. He coughed slightly and said:
"My dear, Pm little surprised at your
fancying this kind of a joke Then, see
ing there was no joke in the expression of
her face, he shifted his ground thus; But
if you really want to-
"'Don't be fool, but go and do what l
tell your said his wife with decision, thus
rendering further argument impossible.
"Once out of her sight the doctor recov-
cred his composnre, and argued the matter
out as follows: 1mpecuniosity can't win !;
consequently money placed on him is
thrown away 1t will be better for me to
keep this money and put in the next race
on horse that has some show of winning.
Pm really S. in With which comforting
reflection he returned to the reporters
stall, nodded affirmatively to his wife, and
sat down.
''The horses came to the post and started.
1t was big field, and when they whirled
into the stretch opposite the grand stand,
several were punched in the van, others
were in a ruck In the middle, while the
rest tailed on behind, and it was impossi-
BILE to tell which was ahead. Then the
leaders swung around the last curve and
came down the homestretch neck and neck
| But when they passed the outer limit Of
the crowd cry went up that froze the
marrow in the doctors bones and sent little
shafts of ice to his extremities. TWAS I'm
[ pecuniostty!
"And that is what 1t really meant for
the doctor, for there had been only two OIL
three tickets sold on the deceitful brute
and mutuals paid $1,000 for 81. He met
his fate like man. That night when his
wife asked him for the money he said the
crowd had been too great about the pools
for him to get the ticket cashed, but he
would get the money in town in the morn.
ing. Next morning, as soon as the bank
was opened, he drew out his 1890 and
took it to the Office, where his wife was
waiting for him.
"Now, what do you call that, luck OF
Providence, or in the language Of the poet
direction which thou canst not seeY
sarsaparilla is peculiar in strength