Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-06-19

j.
tPs5sGss%5sE HaD ly comprehepded toll
EHaHh GRAFTON in the anne
ltora tion # the
courses" Yet it Is
not without debate
The gay French capital is not so gay but
that 1t has grave clques to protest that no
evil shall be done that good may come
And SO, of course, the government is placed
IN difficulty, out Of which it finds its way
by compromise. 1t is not against the law
to play the races; but to play the races you
must go out to the races.
But yes, for sure, it's very easy for the
rich-for the digesters'-to loil out to Long
champs In their carriages; but how is the
brave Workingman, the noble, clear-eyed
Natures nobleman to take a day off from
his toll when he desires to pick a winner2'
These types, the wine merchant" the
garcon de cafe. the newspaper and tobacco
functionaries. being very much in touch
with the down-trodden workingman, in
their continuous performance act of touch
ing him. have conceived and daily execute
veritable touchdown on the government
and Workingman alike by means of this
appeal to liberty, equality and fraternity
Give US your money" the phianthropists
say, kindly, and we will go out to the race
track for you. There. consulting your in
letter. bringing home to you, less COM
mission. all the winnings your provision
foresaw and our devoted assiduity accom-
| plished.''
FlOurishes Enormously.
Now. for two reasons, first, contrariness
and an invincible determination to evade
an arbitrary law, and, secondly, no less
fixed determination to play the sure tip
dreamed of. worked out with a pencil from
statistical sporting ANIMALS, the Tip over
heard, bought, found in coffee grounds OBJ
| tanned in any of a hundred ways. may
| be. this ciandestine betting hourishes enor-
mously among the lower and the lower
middle classes. The cafe waiter, who Is
| known to take risks, has TO keep a note
| book. He only works at night and few
| hours before lunch. Every afternoon he
changes from IAN honest workingman" to
| one of the condemned luxurious oilers, and
| he likes it, He would fain be ''dises ter"
| He will take one of those four-horse or
| SIX. horse omnibuses. long, high on its
| springs, its seats fixed crosswse, like those
| of summer trolley car. The driver in a
| blue coat, red vest, with gilt buttons,
gorgeous topboots and an oilcloth high hat
| OF the old position type, cracks a long
whip, while the conductor. in plain clothes,
| hoarsely soicits passengers from out the
| passing throng.
| The merry omnibus, with its three-card
men. its oglins damsels with lips prefer
cneTTy Seedy middle
| aged men, downcast, furtive, frightening
| into hcpefulneSs over some South African
| gold mine prospectus its vigorous loafers,
| the merry omnibus, with its CLERKS out of
work, its clerks evading a days work
| through falsehood, its wrong-going ia hers
| of-a-fanlily risking the rent morley, it's
instructed youths fresh from the pawn
shop, jingles merrily to sound of swapping
| whip and winding horn, through the great
park they cali the Bots. and then into the
| lovely hill-aId-wood-sur basin,
| where they race upon the Longchamps
| turf The track itself is all green turf,
| and the bunch OF splendid racing all
mails comes laundering by and passes in
the twinkling Of an eye. their heels kick up
soft clods Of grassy dirt that splatter back
on those in the trst rank around the fence.
Poor Get Better Odds.
| There must be thirty betting booths in
the great popular two-franc Enclosure.
Pay four dollars, like the self-indulgent
swells, to enter the pesage, 10 see the
weighing. to observe the horses as they
| are walked round and round, to watch
| the actions Of this noted plunger and that
celebrated hacker, to have information of
! the last odds of the bookmakers, to mix
with the flower Of Paris. to observe the
| ladies and their toilets, to be charged
quarter for a lemonade and twenty cents
| for thin sandwich? No, the one reedful
thing is at his hand, the betting booth run
| by the government. The government of
France is operating here among the lowly
and the humble, taking their one-doiIar
and two-doliar shots, exactly as 1t is
among the plutocratS across the way.
He will get better odds!
There is something remarkable in this
ard, as the cause lies deep in the unfath-
enable darkness of no single human i'm
pulse, but the infinitely blacker mystery
| Of the movement of souls in conglamera-
! ton, that is, in the incoherent Topping of
| the idiotic crowd. no formula for its use
| to be hoped for by the philos opher or
Spectator. Only the fact remains. II is
that, while the mutual pools in the aris-
tocrattc pesage may be paying thirty
| francs for ten on such and such horse,
those Of the plebeian pelouse-the great
| ring where you pay only forty cents adj
missionary yield easily full twenty
francs for five! And this explains why
| In all photographs Of the Grand Prix and
other great events you VIII see blurred
across the track the indistiuct images of
a hundred men caught by the camera in
the act Of running back and forth before
booths Of the populace or ascertain how
| much the populstic pools are paying
Picking the Winner.
Should you follow the garcon de cafe as
he lays the cash Entrusted to him, yo,,
| would note that. while all the little govern
mental shanties operate on the same race
IN the same way-and, note it, pay the
same when all is figured ur,-he will still
walk from this to that. perpiexed, and
| seem to calculate. resolving a hard prob
| lem. When he does this. it denotes that he
| Is exercising his own individual right to
pick out winners his own Account. He
seeks to penetrate the motives of the
crowd, the fancy Of the moment, on which
must depend the final price-and present
. valae-of each horse. and, correlatiyely.
the excruciating risking OF his own dear
dollar.
Each booth is the same, but the chance
movement OF the mob will cause them TO
be very differently patronized. Each booths
establishment consists OF two inhumanly
inapolite and snappy civil-service clerks.
one to receive the doiiars-Ave-franc pieces
giving out q single numbered ticket for
each dollar. while the other at a big black
board records each ticket sold by marking
stroke opposite the name OF that horse
represented oH the Ticket by his number.
Thus It Will arrive that, when, say, ~
have been paid into this booth, there Wiii
be Hfty strokes upon the blackboard ana
distributed among the-sayAfour horses
to be run.
Queen Mab''-twenty strokes.
IA ~