Evening star., 1900-07-07


where a properly cooked and served mess
Of soft-shell crabs can be dished up visit
Ing provincial from Washington who has
made a most thorough and earnest search
for such an establishment would like to
know its address. The average fair-grade
New York restaurant will charge you from
75 cents to $1.25 for two tiny, weazened.
tasteess soft-shell crabs, that might as
well be papier-mache crabs. so little sat
isfaction do they give to one who knows
what real soft-shell crabs are and ought to
be-to one who has lived in Washington or
Baltimore, for instance. 1t Is the same
with oysters over here during the oyster
season. In all New York you can't get
oysters fixed as they are fixed in more
places In Washington than one has fingers.
or as they are fixed in numerous places
in Baltimore and Philadelphia. The New
York attempt at planked shad is sin and
shame. The New York idea of terrapin
stew is joke.
Punctured PlunEers.
This is the season when the turf writers
are regaling themselves and their readers
with tales Of new plungers on the tracks
who are beginning their meteoric careers
to the brittle music of popping corks and
the gay fanfaronade Of the tally-ho trum-
pet. The new plungers are inevitably pic
tured as youthful, pale-faced chaps, who
chew much tutti-frutti, pay little or no
heed to the running of races after they've
put their $4,000 bets down. talk not at all.
and win or lose the price of Koh-i-noor or
the amount Of a first payment on a sool-
tan's ransom with all the calm and coolness
Of barnyard fowl that has been separated
from Its head. This is all very delightful; /;
moreover, these portrayals of the turf plum
gers are as often as not quite accurate. But
what becomes of them all? Where are the
famous plungers of half a dozen years ago,
for example? There is one survivor Of that
bunch of Oakhursts of the track-one
.'Pttsburg Phil" otherwise George E.
Smith, who rides the crests of continued
fortune simply because he has not really
been turf plunger for several years
ing business several years ago, and salted
his winnings away in spots where 1t deliv-
ers him per cent with regularity and con-
secutiveness. He still visits the race
courses, but he doesn't do much betting.
He doesn't walk up to bookmakers and
yawn while he tells them that he'll bet
them 10000. or any part thereof, on the
proposition that Henry of Navarro or
Hanover will 80 across the line first. He
has too much fun with the half million and
odd dollars that he has cached away to do
anything foolish. So no longer counting
'Pittsburg PHIL turf plunger. which
he is not, where have the rest of them
gone?
On the Decline.
Well. the miraculously lucky Riley Gran
nan. upon whom few years ago the Lady
Fortune showered every favor in her cornu-
copia. crossed over to England last spring,
to see If he could not pick up a few dollars
on the. British race tracks with the tiny
capital he had left out of his wrecked pile
and he went Second-claSS. Time was when
the bridal suite wasn't quite good enough
for Grammar when he went a-voyaging
across the billoWy sea. and IN those DAYS he
carried enough baggage along with him to
give the ship a list either to starboard or
port. on whichever side it happened to be
slowed He came back from England at
the beginning of the summer-came back
second-class, too-and it was pretty gener-
ally known around that he was "aI out"
speaking financially.
This young man mace fully $500, 900 in
turf speculation inside of three years
1hats sio.oH per annum al per cent and
S4ooo per annum would surely have kept
even so prodigal youth as Grammar IN
cigarettes and trimmings mad he put his
capital away. But he didn't do it, and now
you may see him. really somewhat sad
figure. standing with his hands in his
pockets. all alone any day down at the
tracks by the sca-not doing ar:thing in
particular. but just sts..di:!g with his hands
In his pockets
MeteOric Careers.
One of last years big plungels William
Barrick, who ran a 500 Eote into s250,OOO
inside of two months-s1O0OOo of which he
captured at the Bcnnng fall meeting last
year-is again scanning the bookmakers'
states with great eascrness before laying
No"ii SaNh betS as Sb t.lu sIU, Hnerc he
used to bet 5000 and $4,000. and he is
said to b indebted many thousands to the
bookmakers on markers besides
The f1ashy Steve L'Hommcdieu-who be-
gan his racing career on the old Alexandria
Island track. by the way-is in England.
and 1t is said that he recently gave up his
suite at the Hotel Ceci! in London because
the horses on the other side were not run
ming exactly his way. This man picked up
a matter of 100000 on the New York race
tracks year ago last spring Then he was
alleged to have got himself mixed up with
a jockey, who permitted a famous race
horse to be left at the post In a famous
race. and the turf authorities, after a quiet
investigation, inttmateG to L'Hommedieu
that his presence could be spare. on the
Jockey Club tracks hcnccforth. He took
the hint still having his 100000 tucked
away on his person within reach, and
went over the deep blue sea, where the
English bookmakers proceeded to make
him homesick. He got back to the states
that Is the amount, according to recent
accounts. that he is minus so far on the
present English racing season. in spite of
the fact that the American Jockeys in Eng
lard appear to be winning about five races
out of six the English racing programs
So that it is probable that Mr.. L'Homme-
dicG will be back ;.ftcr a while 10 play n
leading part IL s;.Gdc. and wiser tableau
AID to adorn the list OF puncturcd plungers
"Little WfIIies'" Success.
Anotner one OF the meteoric plungerS of
last year was the ingenious youth who
went by the name of Little Willie" on
account of his juvenile and extremely dan
dified appearance, and whose real name
was never revealed. While he was doing
his brief stunt at plunging this Little
Willie used to cause the cold beads to
stand out on the foreheads of the book
makers every time he hove into view IN the
betting ring, and 1t was simply nothing at
all for him to pipe out bets of So 900 and
$4,000 and s20.OOO between cigarette In
hales. on horses that none Of the rest Of
the wise persons of the turf figured to
have a chance in life to win-and these
were the sort Of bets that Little Willie
nearly always Won. But by the time last
autumn's leaves were turned to russet, and
the folks were hurrying back from the sea-
shore and the mountains to put up the lace
curtains and to contract for the fall and
winter coal, the bookmakers were beam
Ing on Little WILLIE" and inviting him to
visit them right often.
BY that time. however. Little Willie"
wasn't In shape to respond to their kindly
invitations. and last winter somebody saw
the wrath of the boy plunger purchasing
nickel box of cigarettes, who erstwhi.e
had ordered the 40-cents-a-box sort by the