The San Francisco call., 1898-03-18

Cy, ldhcu IL out Ol lH0 Ddlk dIQ IOSl II gambling, and now, you silly, pitiful criminal, you hope to make up the sum by betting on the races. And you lose daily; you lose, as though there were some malign influence bent upon your l destruction. What will be the end of it?
 My husband would kill me if he knew l was here. He'd think I was crazy" you said. Remember?
 And you, madam, at the present rate when will you join your husband at Klondike? While he is enduring all the hardships of that awful country where the ice fiend guards the gold of the I north, you are playing the races" in your desperate efforts to earn enough to go to him. And you lose, lose, lose. If you need medicine, you don't dare to come here before you have bought it. knowing that you'll never stop betting | till your purse is empty.
 And you, No. 8, whose husband sends from Mexico the monthly sum his sav- ing provides for you. What do you do with it? It goes into one pool room or the other. And you live, as best you can, peddling, sewing, half-beg- ging, anything. until remittance day comes around again.
 And you, No. 1. You earn your dollar l and half a day by the hardest, the most menial work. From s in the morning until at night you must spend cleaning windows, Scrubbing floors, putting other women's homes to rights. And that dollar and a half? You were not so fortunate as to be employed yesterday. So the poor pen nies you had earned the day before you squandered on betting in the pool rooms the next. Oh, you poor, ignor- ant, hard-working, foolish old body! There's No. who sits watching the betting in miserable torment.
 T know l ought to go home" she says weakly. The children are home from school by this time. And I'll have to get dinner, and"
 And she's there to see how the sixth race turns out. As to the children and the dinner, they're both spoilt, no doubt.
 Purdy's is a pool room, pure and simple. It doesn't pretend to be any thing else. It isn't up a flight of dingy stairs in back room of some lodging house. It is divided off from the main room, which only men frequent, by a partition, and a screen protects the women who bet from too curious eyes. Here, though, one must bet at least 50 cents. There's a young woman with a cap on her head and gum in her mouth to take your money. She's a capable little creature. Miss Lou" the women call her, speaking of her with sort of affection, almost.
 If you must bet, madam, and some unhappy hitch in the law prevents the closing, and what's more to the pur- pose, the keeping closed of these pool rooms, go to Purdy's. For one thing you'll not be beginning a career of de- ceit by pretending 10 De anything but what you area gambler: a miserable, mercenary, greedy wretch, whose vice is of all vices the meanest, the most cOntemptible
 AS to your getting the worst of the bargain, even when Fate has turned her fckle face your way, I have OnlX your word for it, Mesdames of the Pool Rooms.
 When the odds are big, they won't take our bets," says one
 1T bet dollar on Linstock for show. And when 1 went to collect, he said I'd bet for place" means another.
 Why didn't you ask him to show you your ticket?'
 T did, and he said. oh, I can't keep track of all your bets. I ain't got time to go back and look through 'em all.' '"
 T had two to one on the horse liked and he only gave me fifteen cents," complains a third.
 Why didn't you tell him you wouldn't stand it?" asked her neighbor.
 Why, he'd tell me to go some place else if I didn't like it. They know we can't make no fuss"
 You can hear this old song in any number of keys. It's sort of wretch ed rondo that runs through the whole There's not woman, who-justly or unjustly-has not some similar com plaint to make.
 At Cohen's we women were sitting about and the wit of the party-a pleasant, shrewd-faced woman, was berating her neighbor for standing it, ' when a sudden hush fell upon us all. A policeman had entered.
 One of us fell into a panic. She made for the door and nearly tumbled down stairs in her fright. But the tall, fair-mustached giant looked about him good humoredly.
 ''All very quiet, aren't your" he said.
 "Oh, it's a spiritual meeting we're having" said the wag. Do you know, she went on chuckling, some women are afraid of policemen. I can't see why. I just sit here and admire 'em.''
 The guardian of the law smiled per functorily at this. He took up the bull racing sheet, which was lying on the table before him, and studied it.
 It's almost unbelievable, but a hard faced, thin little woman looked over at him hopefully. and proffered the same old request for "a tip"
 What do you like in the fifth?" she whined.
 The officer laughed shortly
 "Oh, I don't know" he said. Seeing to-days St Patrick's day, you'd ought to try Frank Ireland"
 A joke? Not to that woman. She wasn't there to joke.
 Do you really think so?" she asked him yearningly. And before he could answer she left the room, bound for the larger front room, where Cohea's patrons of the male sex of all ages con- gregate.
 She came back in minute quite de- jected. Its too late,' she said. He wouldn't take any more. Dye know" she said with beautiful simplicity, its just like him to win now"
 What do you officers come in here for?" asked pert young woman who wore derby hat and an empire jacket. "You can't arrest us. Now, can your"
 The giant looked a bit embarrassed. Then he strengthened up.
 'I just obey orders,'' he said. I'm told to come in here and report, and that's just what I do. Just the same" he went on, pluckily. its not the place for you. You've no business coming here, and any one of you'll admit it, if you stop to think of the rights of it. 'Taint no place for women to come and bet in a room like this in a lodging