The San Francisco call., 1898-07-29
How the Talent Fares
 at SauSalitO.
POLL-SELLING SOAPY SMITHS
BRACE GAME ILLUSTRATED BY
 FIGURES.
Why It Is That Speculators Who Cross the Bay to "Play the Ponies" Sometimes Have
 to Swim Back.

"Soapy' Smith, late of Skaguay, was robber, a gambler and a cut throat peace to his ashes But "Soapy" had the decency to die in good season with his boots on, like a gentleman; and the reports that he already has made the Farmer Corntassels of the happy bunting grounds regret his coming may have been sent out by EXaminer-Jour- nal commissioners and should be dis credited until fully verified.
 "SOapy" was not altogether bad at heart. He had been known to hand out to a less fortunate fellow man the entire profits derived but a short time previous by knocking some Reuben on the head and ravaging his pockets. Like Grayback Pete of Arizona, he generally gave his intended victims a run for their money. Grayback Pete, be it known, was the leader of a band of free-lances around Tombstone in the good old days, when a man never car ried a kerchief, because that would have branded him a dude, and for the further reason that to have reached into rear pocket for one would have started some oVercautious gents fire
 
 accused of having murdered just for pastime the men he took prisoners. This impeachment he invariably de- nied, declaring that he never killed a man without giving him a chance
 Wen de gang decides a mugs got to croak," he explained, T give i'm de chance to fight me an see w'ether he chucks it up or is turned loose. We fights over a rope. De gang stands dere to shoot the duck at tries to jump over de rope"
 What kind of weapons do you use?'' he was asked one day.
 We'll he responded, T ginerally uses a rifle or a small barker and 'tother fellow a knife"
 Sausalito, the pretty village whose proprietor and moral director, Senor Sylva, permits it to lie just across the bay from San Francisco, has it's "Soapy" Smiths and it's Grayback Petes, but no one ever accused them of returning any contributions found in the kitty. The names by which they are known to the police and society are Harrison and Harvey, but the titles ap- piled to them by spectators who cross the bay with capital, go up against their brace game and then have to swim to get back are not fit for pub ication in a respectable family journal. l HIS p1II Ol WOl ll1lSS OECAdbC lIlC pun rooms, which, by the grace of Chris topher Buckley and a little metallic suasion exerted upon the municipal of fcers, are permitted to exist in the erstwhile respectable town. This in itself Is not a crime-merely an offense; but when the game they conduct de- velops from one of chance to one of no chance at all: like that of the man who sells the bar of soap around which he doesn't wrap the greenback, they deserve the usual fate of convicted three-card monte artists and gold-brick salesmen.
 At best the racing game is a hard one for the speculator to beat. The percentage against him is enormous. In the pool rooms it is more so. The odds offered at the track are boiled down" until the man who tries to "beat the ponies" by the long-distance method has to sell his clothes to keep up with the percentage against him.
 This is easily illustrated by means of facts and figures. In the follow ing table are given the names of the horses that finished fin the money" or Wednesday at Brighton Beach, with the odds offered at the track and those posted in Harrison's and Harveys pool