The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-08-02
THE ABUSED MorHER-IM-LAw
How One Brought Luck tn . Rsce-rrsck
Plunger.

How One Brought Luck tn . Race-rrsck
Plunger.
81 am thankful to see," said q New
Yorker of considerable experience the
other day to a Times reporter, "that the
popular antipathy 10 mothers-in-law 10 he
coming in a measure extinct. II was
always, Of course, confined to the more
vulgar classes. but the poor abused 'rela-
tive was most numerically drubbed i'm
every newspaper and comic magazine,
and II got to be most disgusting to any,
body of deccncy and common sense.
"Why, / know Of numbcrlcss instances
where n man has been benefited by n
mother-in-law. A friend OF mine-and by
the a this story Is perfectly true came
TO mt the other day complaining OF the
mutability of this worlds fortunes, espec-
tally in the matter OF horse racing. He
said that he really had no right to COM
plain, for in a financial way he had come
out ahead. The worst Of the matter was
that his one and only attendance at a
horse race had resulted in q complete de-
molition of his hitherto superstitious
hatred of his mother-in-law.
"This may be hard To understand, but
il is true. NV friend has never INDUCED
in the wild dissipation of attending a
horse race, and was advised by his friends
that he could not expect To retain his po-
sition in society unless he underwent this
form of mental excitement at least once.
He accordingly went. Like all novices,
he was completely swept oil his feet by
crowd, and would doubtless have suffered
severe losses had he not been previously
prevented from carrying with him more
han S25 besides enough for his car fare.
las il was, he determined to be bet s.
on each OF the five races OF the day.
Somehow he failed to get his money up
on the first race and thcn he was nearly
crazy to bet on the second. or course he
had with him an expert who initiated him
into the mysteries of odds, short horses,'
and the like, and this dignitary was very
badly shocked when my friend seized him
by the arm, and pointing eagerly at the
board where the names of the horses in
the next race were posted. shouted:
There's the horse | am going to bet on
40 to I'm be shot il l DON'T and then
struggled Oft with a SO bill in his hand in
tent on betting on n of the rankest out
slider In the race.
The adviser of my friend was Mortified
and protested against such n foolish ex-
pcnditure Of money, but to no purpose.
He vas bent on betting on that particular
horse. and for n very particular reason.
II was n horse we call, for short, Matilda
Jane, N there was no possible chance
of her winning, but the bet was made
Then my friend explained that he was
more than glad to bet OH her, because
Matilda Jane was the name OF his dearly
hated mother-in-law, and he was willing
to pay so just for the pleasure which he
had been sure of getting in seeing her
beaten.
swell, would you believe it? Matilda
Jane was in the very worst part of the
'ruck.' The favorites were forging away
ahead and Matilda Jane was concealed
by the distance, when the first horse
slipped and fell. The Others swerved and
stumbled over him, while Matilda Jane
sailed calmly by them and won the race.
"My friend found himself the unfortu-
nate winner of 800, and left the track
moody and dishcartened To think that,
after all, the. uncertainty of a horse race
crushed his pet scheme of glorying at the
small cost OF SO i'm the loss Of money on
his mother-in-law's name. His whole
theory of existence has been SO altered
since that he is not the same man."