The historic times. [volume] (Lawrence, Kansas) 1891-1891, 1891-08-29
NEARLY a WIN.
1t Was His Long Odds Horse, But There
Was a Slip After All.

bed fellows.
Most Of these "reminiscences are about
the narrators i'll luck
/ have heard a good many such won
derful tales off and on, but the saddest
OF all was related to me in a Fourteenth
street commission room by a seedy
looking man, with a frightened look
about his eyes, as if he had played a
five hundred to one shot with his last
dollar
"Ive had good many hard turns in
this line" he said. dead sure things
gone wrong Copper fastened cinches
left at the post! And all that sort of
demOralizing business. but an expert
ence had in Chicago few years ago
beat all else hollow in a long and, by
no means, embarrassing career of play
ing horses.
1T was at the time when hurdle
races were more in vogue than they are
now. | was in one of the pool rooms
out there one terribly stormy day and
had been playing in the very worst
kind of luck Every horse I bet on
seemed to get beaten by neck, nose
or eye lash. When | entered the place
l had a good big roll of bills and felt
quite confident Of coming off a winner.
AS | lost | kept up my courage, saying,
Your turn must come, old man, so keep
a stiff upper lip
Accordingly the more lost on one
race the harder plunged on the next.
l couldn't keep up with the procession,
however, and when the race fifth had
been finished / found myself with only
twenty dollars left out of some hundreds.
"The sixth was hurdle race with
thirteen starters How well | remem-
Der that thirteen. / at once became
superstitious. i shall play the thir-
teenth horse ] said, no matter what
odds there are against it.
''When | looked at the blackboard
my resolution nearly left me, for, to
my dismay, l found that the brute was
the extreme outsider. There was fifty
to one against him. / hesitated some
little time while | handled those TWEEN
ty dollars, the only money | had in this
cruel, wild world and not one friend in
its vast extent upon whom | could call
for pecuniary aid in case Of going broke.
SHOULD play that old plug, and if
did should | venture my little all?
Luck was dead agin me. l fully
realized that I hadn't picked single
winner in the whole card
"What should do? Would the odds
go down to indicate that some one else
was backing the horse? Some fool like
myself, fascinated by the size of the
prize in the event of success. | want
ed some company in my misery. |
didn't care who he was or what he was,
or if there was only one in the whole
crowd who would take the risk
81 waited in vain. | stood alone in
my folly. The odds went up sixty to
one. Every other horse of the thirteen
had some backing; mine had absolutely
none.
We'll here goes, l said in despera-
ton at last, and planks down my TWEEN
ty dollars. AS the boOkmaker said
twelve hundred dollars to twenty dol
lars he looked at me as if | were an
escaped lunatic and laughed.
81 felt angry enough to knock him
down, but at that moment the tele-
graph ticker began to click and the
cry They're OFF, was heard.
II need not tell you what a iackass
considered myself just then nor what
pictures of hardships hoated through
my mind as | saw my last dollar gone
on such fools selection.
ut was only desperate mans inter
est that l took in the race. | felt
CT,
every particular bone in my body.
The muddy track made thard work
for the horses to keep their footing, and
l was not at all surprised. as the de-
scription of the race was called off, to
hear of one horse aftev another taking
a tumble The only thing that kept me
wondering was how my old dub wasn't
among the number on his back in the
mud.
what was my establishment when
the stretch was reached to hear that of
the four horses that remained on their
feet mine was one.
would | win after all? | tried to
Danish such foolish thoughts, but Of
course couldn't. Another horse went
down. 1t wasn't mine. They were
in front of the last hurdle, the pool
room man next called out:
Great Scott two more had fallen.
Which? A moment of agonizing sus-
pense, and then-wen, sir, pardon my
emotion. Even at this day" the
stranger said, trembling, 81 can not
think of it without getting excited .
Your horse, of course, was one of
the two which had gone down this
time, interposed
NO. sir" slapping his knee with
great whack. HE alone remained on
his fore legs-he won, sir
"And you had broken your bad luck,
so you stepped up and got your money,
and blessed the number thirteen" said
l, anticipating him.
mo, sir" he explained, getting as
angry as he had been excited before.
They wouldn't pay the money. sir:
said that the rules of their blamed
house were TO the effect that two horses
must be standing up st the finish or the
bets didn't 20. They condeScended to
give me my twenty dollars back. but
couldn't, by arguments or threats, get
them to change their decision. Clear
steal? Well, | should say SO, sir. I've
never gotten over il, but l might have