The Saint Paul globe., 1899-12-25


1t, and Might Have Quit With
Enough to Keep Him in Comfort
All His Days-End the Same old
Story.
A party Of turfmen at Washington for
the Benning meeting were talking of the
remarkable streak Of luck which enabled
Billy Barrick to run a borrowed shoe
string of $500 up to an amount which Is
said to approximate $1,000 in six weeks.
"Barrick's double-ended luck, both at
faro bank and horses" said one of the
bookmakers in the party. 'is a whole lot
put of the common Luck is a full-bred sort
of an affair, and it does not often run
along hybrid lines. What I mean to say
Is that the man who has huge run OF
luck at one game almost invariably falls
into the doldrums and goes all to pieces
when he switches to another game. The
luclliest men I ever knew on the turf,
for example. were the unluckiest card
players, and most of them stubbornly
spent a good many thousands of their
pony winnings before they found this
out. Barrick seems to be an exception.
He has got into the current. and he could
probably get away with the money at
San-tan or Cingalese pool while he's in
his present shape. But he's an exception,
as say. It's the man who sticks to the
one game that drives the swaggerest dog
cart and wears the whitest gig-lamps IN
the long run.
II remember a chap out IN st. Louis
who ran a shoestring OF five cents up to
pretty close to six figures in the summer
of 1885. His name was Red Donnelly, and
he had charge of the bookmakers' para
phernaia in the betting ring of the st.
Louis fair grounds when the lady For
tune beamed upon that nickel of his and
invited him to bask for time in her do
main. He was a loOse-jointed, spraddle-
shaped sort of young chap Of twenty
five or so. who had been hanging around
the St Louis tracks from his early boy
hood. He learned so much about the
horses that he could never win anything
on them when he played in the ten-cent
books made by the rail-birds. He had
been holding down the job of dog robber
for the bookmakers for two seasons be
fore he struck his lead on that nickel He
came out to the track one day early in
June, 1895, with the solitary nickel repos-
ing in the depths of his trousers pockets
salted there to pay his fare back to the
city. Red strOlled out to the barns and
got to pitching nickels with pack of
idle stable boys. The luck was with him
from the jump, and when he accumulated
a dollar IN nickeIs he exhibited symptoms
Of a man suffering from chilblains. His
reason for getting cold feet was that he
had a good thing in the fourth race and
by the time he had acquired the dollar
the betting had begun on the fourth race.
FORTUNE FROM A NICKEL.
Red hurtled himself into the ring with
his dollar and saw that the price offered
against his good thing, the old nag Hush
was 60 to l. Donnelly needed a bundle
of cigarettes and a few drinks pretty
badly, but he was game when it came tc
sticking to his good things, and he slipped
his twenty nickels down on Hush with q
bookmaker he knew. He took good-na-
turedly the mocking hoot which the
bOoky gave him for handing in twenty
pieces Of that kind of metal, and cata-
pulled himself out to the rail just as the
horses went away from the post The
race was really something silly, fo1
Hush, in the unweldY field of nineteer
horses. Hush led all the way, and
pranced under the wire first in big gal
lop, pulled double. The boy had Hush ur
In his lap all the way.
The bookmaker passed Donnelly the
t61. Red carefully folded the dollar bill
and tucked it into his waistcoat pocket
Then he invested the $50 in SO clips, with
six books, on Dorah Wood, In the mex
race, at Is to l. 1t was a canter fol
Dorah Wood and Red knocked the book
makers silly-they all knew him wei
from his workings around the place
by soclIing it to six of them for $50 each
A committee OF safety was immediatel,
formed around Donnely, but he couldn'
be held down. He tossed a quart of win,
under his waist-lne, purchased a pack
age of cigarettes made in Turkey fo
forty cents, and looked over his dope
book carefully. Then he ssroiled into tn
ring and bet $500 on Minnie Gee in tn
last race. Minnie Gee was at to !
and 1t was something ridiculous for her
She won on the bit, and Red was s., ,65
to the good on that nickel that he hat
salted away in his homespuns for tn
return trip to town.
when Red turned up to collect, Barne,
Schreiber-he's big-hearted Barney-ha,
him, as it were, by the scruff of the neck
Barney announced to all of us that h
was going to collect for Donnelly, an
what Barney said went with us, for we al
knew Reds propensities. Donnelly pu
up a weak grOwl, but he knew way dow
deep in him that Schneider could an
would take care of the cash better thai
he could or would. Barney pinched So Sc
Of the wad inserted it in separate com
partment Of his wallet, and handed Re,
$50.
I'll just let you have a little change
Red said he, and if you think you ca1
run that up into a lanyard, go ahead
But I'm agoing to handle this for yo
the right way. You're not tied enougI
IN your ways to have such a vast sun
on, your person all at once and the sam
time
Donnelly didn't demur much The s15
was huge sum in itself for him, and h
of course knew that Schneider would d.
the right thing with the main bunch
AS a matter of fact, Barney deposite
the $1,000 the next day to the credit o
Donnelly's old mother and Schneider an
the old woman were the only people VIII
knew anything about that end of 1t 70
long time afterward
LUCKY PLAY AT FARO.
1--WE all gibed and rosated Red about tn
delirium tremens finish we foresaw TO
him. and when he didn't turn I'D at tn
track at all on the following day. neces
stating the turning of his dog-robbin
work over to another man. there was
lot of talk about the tremendous barrel
house toot Red must have gone on dow
the levee way. That's where we Uer
camping out. When he picked I'D th
papers on turning out the following morn
Ing we found scare-head story in on
Of them relating in great detail and elab
crate dictlon how one Mr. John S. Don
nelly. a gentleman we'll known on tn
Western turf, had swatted Ed McGuck
ms faro bank over in East St. Louis
to the tune Of $16,0O0 playing steadil