Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-29
UP ON RACING TERMS

Ans Waitef n oeeh hot sport at one
time In his Ell kence. He managed to
| pick a winner o6ce. atextremely long odds.
This was when be knew very little about
racing. The 81 he won on the long shot
gave him tastM of the sport and he imme-
diately became { tin. horn gambler, to use
| an expression d thesfraternity.
He played tn racA with varying sue.
cess Tor time$bacS od-ay. the $500 which
had come to hi inM lump SO unexpect-
ed1y. The end Ean,Z however, as it does
| In such cases, From playing the races
| himself he degeherated into a race track
tout. with b fnoAth, a would-be per-
suasive manneraan tips which, according
to him, were calculated to make any man
who played them a Vanderbilt at short
notice. He followed the meetings from
one place to another as the horsemen
swung around the circle to avoid the pen
atty OF racing too long on any particular
track. He finally became fiat broke, and
wnen the horses, including the hurdle
racers. aS well as those. on the fiat, made
longer Jump than usual, clean into
another state Fred was left behind He
was too heavily handicapped. he explained,
70 make the running and fell down at the
start In other -UeoTxls, a'he was forced to
rehnquish watching the ponies do their
circular act for the time being. Much
against his inclination he was forced to
accept position In a restaurant as a
waiter. -. :
The slang Of the turf, the expressions
whlcn mean so little and are so puzzling
10 an outsider never leave one who has
peen amicted with the horse fever for any
length OF time. Though Fred was a sim
pie waiter In a restaurant the atmosphere
OF the race track still chung to him. In
ms nus, mind,s eye he heard the clang of the
pen cailng the horses to the post he
neard the cries of the 'bookies' shouting
their odds. and could imagine he was
Watching the bang tails" as they speeded
around the track The Star reporter was
at tne restaurant where Fred had sunk his
loentity as tout for the time being. He
sun wore his horseshoe pin, however, and
mad all the manner and appearance of
typical tout. When he approached the
s siSitor ne came up to the table with the
Oil OF rare as II he had some mysterious
Information to impart regarding the imap-
II airy races.
IN answer to the question as to what
time me, dinner would be ready he replied:
IneyH be OF in a short time now sir.
Scheduie time is 4:3O, and the starter usual
~ gets them off right at the first jump. l
Deg pardon, sir, I mean that the cook is
always on time. Have look at the card,
slr' ne asked handing the guest the bill
of fare. Its a pretty good card TO-DAY"
ne said absent-mindedly. THAT consomme
Is good thing. It's what 1 would select
as Iavorate out of the bunch in the start
off. Went all right yesterday. red-hot
favorite. I amt much stuck on that to-
mato." =.
The guest took Fred's tip on consomme
and played it, as it were. Just as he had
said, 1t was a good thing.
The card was again produced when
consomme had won out by a neck. RED
snapper is dead sure winner in this next
event., Fred remarked, as an inspection
was made of the bill of fare. 81 see they
had salmon entered. but they scratched
him. He's kind of stale, guess. Red
snapper is pounds and pounds better than
piuehsh Bluefish amt running very well,
now. II l were you," was the confidential
remark, I'D take celery as the runner up.
Pretty fresh today
Roast beef was all right yesterday, ~
was the remark when the entree came IL
guess it belongs to the same stable You
know sometimes theyo run in a ringer on
roast beef, but 4 think this is the straight
stun Anyway you can take little of it.
and If you amt stuck on it why you don't
lose much. see? Say, you want to let that
mutton chop alone. Fl amt no good. There
amt no life about it's
And so it continued, throughout the en-
tire dinner. There were some deviled crabs
characterized as "hot stuff" and the re-
mark was made,fhat they would twin in a
walk" Ice cream was denominated as "a
cold stir and. demi-tasse. was called zone
black filly which was left in the race when
the flag fell" J" i u
II think you won out all right by taking
my tips said the waiter when the guest
arose to depart oit"T8morrow is Sunday,
and We have aHoextr& fine card then You
ought to come IN and get down on turkey.
That's the best thing they have entered
on this circuit. " You want to come early or
you'll get Left ! - as'1 ''i-
Then the unwilling guest at the imagi-
nary horse race went up to the bookie to
have his check cashed or simply to pay
the cashier. as the case may have been.