The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-26
A POOL ROOM HUNCH.
Tip Of Humpbaeked Peddler Brings
Woe to Bookies.

All of the pool rooms on the lower East
Side lost heavily on the last race run at
St. Louis yesterday In some of the rooms
the losses figured up more than twice the
amount of money taken in during the
day, and old-time gamblers said that the
New York rooms never had such bad luck
before. a hunchback was responsible Tor
it. OF course, it is well known that rae
ing men have a superstition about hunch-
} backs, which partly accounts for It. But
/ the little man who caused the book1es all
the trouble yesterday seemed queer any
way and last night the pool room men
were anxious to find out who he is
The East Side pool rooms opened for
business at ? clock yesterday afternoon.
Promptly at that hour the hunchback ap-
Deared at a downtown room. He was
about 50 years old and wore long beard.
On his back he carried DeddIers pack
stacked with wire rat traps and swinging
by a rome from his shoulder were half a
dozen wire coat racks.
I'VE don't want none of en- said the
doorkee2er gruffly. "Skeedoor
What should I?' asked the hunchback.
"Skeedooi Get outI''
But viii race horse play" explained
| the 2eGdler- Il will some bets make nit
de- 3OOl room
keeper.
Il got dot for a bunch to make der bet
on said the peddler, exhibiting a roll Of
bills and the doorkeeper let him pass. He
went into the room and adjusting a pair
of s9ectacles, examined the card on the
wall.
| a man near him.
''Dere dey are" said the man. pointing
them out. ''Dere's six of dem, five sellin'
an a handicao. BY de time dey start
you won't have a nickel TO bet. for yer
/ got about 200 other plugs to bet on on
But / viii St Louis bet" said the
hunchbaek. only on der behind race
which comes last. l mean not 1 viii bet
on der last horse. but der race which is.
lDot's her name init dot paper. Anne Old
field: see?''
Amy old thing yer mean" remarked
| his obliging informant.
mo, dot viii VIM so sure / live" in
sisted the hunchback. He put a ring
around the name of Anne Oldheld, one
| of the eight entries in the last race AT
odds, five for one, I will it play before she
| changes der price. went TO the window
| labeled Receiver and showed $50 in to
the bookie. Ten I vim dot you bet fifty
against Anne Oldheld; und ten she gets
blaze to $40. Vhat?''
-''An right," said the bookie, fifty to
| ten on Oldfield to win and twenty TO ten
| for the place"
| lucky to touch the hunchback's hump a
minute later almost every one in the room
was rubbing it, He took it good ma
turedly and, having advised the crowd tC
/
| the door he wrote on one of the posts
with piece of chalk: Anne viii vim in
| last race"
When he had gone almost every mar
! in the pool room intimated that he'd risk
/ a dollar or five on Anne Oldfield The
| same thing occurred in another pool room
which the hunchback visited two 1louFs
| later Afterward he went to another ano
| another going all along the line making
bets and announcing that Anne Oldfiel6
would win. In each place ne marked
signs on the racing cards He was eject
ed from two pool rooms for touting but
most of the bookies thought him crazy
and believing that Anne Oldfield had nc
| chance whatever, humored their custom
! ers and gave all sorts of odds.
II was about o'clock in the evening
| when the news from the last race at ST
Louis was received Anne Oldfield al
| odds of to l wins easily" was the mes
sage. Almost every man in every room
had a bet on the horse, and the winners
| seemed to go crazy Men Rugged eacI
other. cheered and threw their hats UT
to the ceiling, and the bookmakers swor,
| at their clerks for allowing the bunch
back in the rooms. The hunchback a.
! he made the rounds collecting his win
nings, only laughed. He hadn't his pacl
| with him then. and that's why the book
makers would ike to know more abou
HIN