Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1895-11-17
OLD SCHOOL SPORTSMEN.
WAGERs OF GENTLEMEN OF THAT
KIND DOWN SOUTH.
Bets Were Made That Would StaEger-
a Gambler Kept Himself Alive to
Win Funeral ESpenses-Old
Hickory's Race.
From the Now York Sun

From the New York Sun.
GU young sters perhaps think you do
astonishing things in the way of sport" a
veteran said the other day in the pres
ance of New York sun reporter. "but
take my word for it there Were men back
IN the tWehues and thirties and forties
Wagers that would stagger the nerviest OF
present day plungers, They had a true
blue sporting blood, those old fellows, and
to4il no more heIp betting than they could
help drinking good whisky. Why, there
was my fathers father; he lost at sin
gle, sitting every foot of land he owned,
and ii was nearly half a Carolina county.
He lost the bulk of his negroes, too; tifty
qad, think. l know he took only ten with
aims into what was then the Western coun-
Try and is now Kentucky, Tennessee and
out Of ii if he had been cur enough to
plead the gambling act, and equally, of
course. he did no such thing.
Instead, he gathered together what re-
mained ana set to work with as good a
VIII as he mad played. Not 50 one of his
friends and boon companions. At 21 this
man came into the handsomest fortune In
the county--J.NO acres Of rich Roanoke
river bottom lands, stock aud negroes to
work II, and EJO,ppJ Suugly at interest. Yet
before he was 30 the money was gone,
and he had borrowed ana Gambled away
50 much more that the sheriff sold at one
ulhe Over -D sttFgs ana ms HE interest
N the l"ng, which was cntailcd. What
the sum Of his debts was | don't know.
6ut $4,000 had been lost IN one night of the
Richmond race week. He began 10y win
ming every race that day, and pushed luck
tn she turned and rent him. He had been
drinking, 80 had not wit enough 10 stop
when he began 10 lose 1t went on til he
had ten thousand on a single hand, and
when he lost that there was no stopping
him while he had a dollar When he at
last got up from the table he staggered a
man, lie sat alphabetically about. now in
th!s fElHuls house, now in that and
though ~ lived to hftN odd he never ala
stroke of work or seemed to realize that
he had a mans place In the world.
He aud nay grandfather were types OF a
class that spread ali over the old slave
holding states Naturally, racing iiour-
ishcd and YOU can Judge for Yourselves
If betting Mas not iiveiy. When owners
made, matches al 500 Op n side Colonel
Singleton, of South Carolina, and William
r. Johnson, Of Virginia, aid that more
FsLer ard he Thought nothIng ON four
hoofs had leave 10 beat her al four miles,
Johnson had much the same opinion Of
his horse. Bonnets o. blue, and when the
mare beat him il was by such an tyelash
that he never rested tin the match was
naSa over again. and I'm The last race Bon
Ms ~ f3Ine IAN" nbnut es ,ot,tb obe9d-
;Tber tbe tS-o ov,rars Vent at each other
aesin about other horse and got up
toni, every bet any man offerai ~ the odds
were 100 10 / "a mighty good bel, even
dav uuou a racecourse there We're but
fyyo entries for n race. n sarIcv bIood-like
bay mare and a biz, lumbtring brown
geiding mat had a turn Of speed and
Tit+tt-.s 90, NJ ,ntt"tsy ,,,rI,Iat III,
~ anv nr,ee II Was meTeiv ~ TWO nile
r., , oIig aIiar Sari ioI ,r,ssssd frnr, H..
start; stil he hung ON, and there was
some Gets'ye StSoat.oh as go ny "hat
H. ~ 81 49, ro"rs soVr,r Cor ne s.oon5
nile i.ntne one an iha crowd shoiited:
ny h4hafeI 70 y0 Vi1 snybny ra., eyen
thrae hundred?'
,t rgNI 9ofs ne n"nay
ha5 baSSp coynred tbera was a Wild ais