The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-03
oAT-Los,Nc AS A SPORT.
Bill Chetwood Started the Game in Rock
Island, Ill.

cAT-LosiNG AS A SPORT.
Bill Chetwood Started the Game in Rock
Island, Ill.
A couple of western men with moth
ing much to do sat in one of the win
dows of the Metropolitan club in Wash
inSton the other afternoon and made IS
bets with each ether as to the color of
the next passer-by. The luck was a
good deal like matching pennies for
awhile, with small percentage in IA
vor of white pedestrians The older
man of the two, who was taking the
white end of it, Of course had the bene-
fit of this small percentage, but he fin
ally switched.
Five this time that the next passer-
by won't be white,'' he said to his COM
panion.
I'm on" was the reply give that
he will be white"
There was wait of couple of min
utes, and then member of the Chinese
legation, gorgeous in his silks and furs,
passed by the window.
Il VIM said the older man of the
two.
For why do you win? Didn't you bet
that the next passer-by would be
black?" asked the other man.
mot any, did L." answered the older
man. II laid my five that the next
man to go by wouldn't be white. Re
member that, don't you? You don't call
Chinaman a white MANI"
The young man remembered and sur
rendered his five.
II got badly the worst of this game
when Mckinley was being inaugur-
ated," said the winner of the last bet.
Il had a window in hotel on Penn
sylvania avenue, and the preponderance
of the colored man on the street struck
me as odd, as it does most western
folks. So I started to betting with a
friend who shared the window with me
that three out of every five people who
passed a certain electric light pole in
front of the hotel would be black. He
took me up, and blamed If the darkies
didn't seem to disappear from Pennsyl-
vana avenue from the moment the bet
was made. let the bet stand for five
minutes. and by that time I was $3.50
out Then l was mad and turned the
box on him.
1.-The darkies must have heard I was
betting on Them I said, and they've
dumped me for some cause unknown.
I'll just take another end of it now, and
bet you an even s100 that there won't
be a dozen black folks walk by that
pole within the next three minutes
He took me. He had hardly nodded
his assent when there was a mighty
ump-ta-ra-ra and blare of shrill comets
outside that got my nerve. l can tell a
darby band a mile off. and I knew that
I was another 500 out. Sure enough,
within 30 seconds a gorgeously bedizen.
ed black band, about so strong, paraded
past our pole. I handed over the 500
and quit betting for the day
Some more men came up, and they
got to talking about queer bets
Ever hear about that mule race we
had out on the Leavenworth fair
grounds track?" asked man from
Kansas. That was about as bad bet
ting proposition as ever took a chance
on. even for fun. 1t happened back in
'S4. Six or seven citizens of LeaVen-
worth possessed mules that had a turn
of speed, and the way they Dragged
about their respective mules was a
caution Now, while mule has
whole lot of commendable points, his
long suit isn't speed, and these mule
owners were a good deal ridiculed for
their talk about thoroughbred mules
The managers of the local fair finally
decided to put all of those nifty mules
down on the card for race on the last
day of the fair. A purse CT 800 was
hung up, and the mule that ran last
was to win out the purse for his owner.
Now, that looked easy enough, didn't
it? All that the owner and rider of his
mule had to do, you'll suppose. was to
let his mule loaf in the race, or snatch
him, as they call pulling as animal
nowadays. But this wouldn't have
DONE of course. for all of the owner
riders would have tried the same game,
and there wouldn't have been any race
at all. Therefore, no owner Of a mule
entered in the race was permitted to
ride his own mule. Each of the owner
riders had to ride one of the other fell
lows mules. See? Then it was up to
each man on top of a mule to ride his
long cared mount for all he was worth,
in order to better the chances of his
own mule to finish last. There were
two or three local books on the three
quarter track, and when the layers
came to this race they made it to !
and take your pick. That was about
the only time ever saw large crowd
of bettors scrambling to get on dead
one. All of us that wanted to put bet
down on the race had the privilege of
looking the mules over in the paddock
in order to pick out what looked like
the dopiest and most lukewarm of the
bunch. There was one slate-colored
mule in the lot that looked like he
couldn't and wouldn't run a block for
the honor of the nation. That mule
was so tired-looking that he positively
leaned against fence in the paddock.
The wise people including myself. pick
ed out that mule as the one that ought
to be to 10 chance to run last. and
we began to play him off the boards.
Everybody in the ring got onto that
mule before the books had been opened
long, and when the mule Went to the