The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1891-10-30
HOW HE WON HIS WIFE.

liz W I'LL " $1,000
See that couple going into the box
there-there, right back Of the judges
stand-lady in red and the fellow with
the light hat-see:'
Eyes! Who are they? What about
'em?'
"Oh, they're staid married folks now,
but they had enough romance in their
courtship to supply one of these female
sensationalists with plot for a dozen
q1arto novels.
'sWell, that fellow won his wife in a
race. first met him in England three
years ago at Newmarket, the great rae
ing heath, where nearly all their big
events come off. He is an American,
and just happened to drop into the place
a few days earlier than | did. She is
English, and the daughter of a man who
has long been known as one Of the nerv-
lest bookmakers on the English turf,
When / met him it lacked four weeks of
the date of the great Doncaster cup, one
of the biggest stake races of the English
calendar. We became acquainted and
got to knocking around together. His
name is Shelby, Thomas Shelby, and, as
| soon learned, he came from that state
where the grass grows blue, not green,
and where the ripping rills percolate
through fltering limestone to be caught
by man and distilled into the nectar Of
the ~gods-sour mash
Furthermore, found out that he had
money, lots Of it, knew all about horses,
and had fallen desperately in love with
Miss Molly, daughter of William Mitch
ell, the bookInaker.
"As Shelby and l got better acquaint-
ed he confded to me that he had paid
his addresses to the fair Molly ever since
the race meeting in Leicester, and that
while she had received them fayorably
and said Eyes" to the all momentous
question her father had absolutely re-
fused to give any consideration to his
proposition for his daughters hand, and
that Miss Molly was sufficiently flial in
her duty to refuse his proposition to
elope. At that time Mitchell was rated
a wealthy man, and that his ambitions
layaway beyond bookmakinsand racing
as professions was well known.
We'll, Shelby was the right sort. He
had as much nerve as old Mitchell, and
money too. There's only one way to
make that old fool come around, he said.
for he's as pig headed as the devil, and
I'm going to take that way.
Whats that? | asked.
Ito break him, replied my Kentucky
fri1n9 tpnl To, ryo5,or y. L. - .
Il intimated that there were two sides
to every proposition, that what Mitchell
didn't know about horse racing nobody
did, and that IN his attempt to break the
old man young Mr.. Shelby, of Lexington.
was very likely to 90 broke himself.
'Elope with the GIRL | said, but don't
try to break Mitchell. Remember the
bitter oft gets bitten.
" She won't elope, he answered. /
told you that, and as long as her respect
ed dad has nothing but money he won't
let her marry anybody while he has a
chance Of hooking some busted title for
her. He's ambitious and he thinks he's
smart, but have a scheme to do him
which | think will start his downfall all
right. Listen: Now, I've got a colt vel
here that, as soon as he's ~acclimated, is
going to show some of these crack 2-year-
olds the real Kentucky pace. Nobody
knows he's in the country, nobody knows
anything about him, and when ! enter
him in the Downesborough handicap the
Handicapped will let him go at feather
weight, and the odds will be 100 TO
sure. Well, | amt going to start him in
the Doncaster, but I'm going to get in on
old Mitchell's book for that a bit first.
and then swoop down on him at Downes-
borough and finish him up. Then III
stake him again if he'll let me marry the
girl, See;'
Il didn't see exactly, at least about the
Doncaster business, till the next day,
when heard Of a rank outsider, owned
by a young fellow named Master, who
lived in the country down Leicester way.
being backed by e10, 900 against &, 200.
The colt hadn't appeared in the betting
at all previous to that, and nobody had
any idea of his being even a possible
winner. saw Shelby that night, and
he grinred when | mentioned tine Incl
dent.
"fPart of my scheme, dear boy, ho
said. Master is a pal Of mine, and that
colts been kept bottled up Hes about
as near a sure thing as ever had. No
body knows what he is or who he is.
Master let me in OF my promise to give
him a chance on my entry at Downes-
borough.
The next days papers recorded an
other bet of 5000 to 81, 900 by old
Mitchell, and from that on, the talent
smelling a rat, the Master colt jumed up
in the odds till only the fayorite carried
as much money.
The old man stands to lose e22, 900
on that colt Of Masters, said Shelby
gleefully the day before the race, and
I've got $4,000 Of it myself It's sure
money too
well, the al came off, and demon
strated that he was right. The unknown
won handily, and turf circles went crazy
in their wild excitement of the mex
pected.
"Old Mitchell was wild, but he settled
in full and told his friends that he'd even
up at Downesborough He didn't know
to whom he had lost all the money, as
Shelby had done all his betting through
his pal, Master. 1t was only three days
hfta. +ba nCpcaefar 30 on that the D01rnaa-