Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-24
WORKING A NEW SCHEME

VVOHNlN0 a NEW SChGMe
A New York booktsster who had slate
up during the, greater part of the meeting
of the Crescent CITY bckey Club in New
Orleans stopped ovey in Washington on the
return trip the othet-day to have a look at
some horses at Benning in which he is in
terested. r.,,,
The showers of tie peer. put a new one
over at the New or4af meeting" the said
track. Nearly every bookmaker in the
' I my myself slNs was as g sJa hing No. among
the layers of odds dowrthere 1t was soon
of baby two-year-olds went to the post, and
we laid pretty good prizes about the chances
of all of them. One of them was heavily
played-a Texas colt named Sad Sam-and
his price was thumped down from about 10
to to 6 to l. Sad Sam won on the bit,
and the ring was hit pretty hard. l had
to pay out $3.50 on him. A man down
there that know, a city official, was in on
the good thing, and he got me for $50 of 1t.
He was the last man to show up in my line
for settlement, and my cashier passed him
out his money in tens. The city official,
a practiced handler of money. felt of the
notes as they were dished out to him, and
the very last bill my cashier gave him
treasury note. and a neat-looking piece of
the green at that The city official handed
it back to my settler.
Phony, said he.
Back up said my cashier. He knew
the city official, too, but he thought he was
only fooling. The green goods outfit Is
further up the line
NO I'm in earnest said the official.
It's a bad paper and then he pointed out
to the cashier the whercness and whyness
Of the bill being NJ G. Istook hand then.
and saw after a close inspection that the
bill was a counterfeit. 1t was a nice job,
too but am pretty good at money myself,
although l had taken in this piece OF run,
bish. 1 gave the city official a good btll
for the ten, and showed a seuth knew the
bad piece of paper. He took it along with
him, and l suppose he put it in the hands
of the secret service folks. l don't know
whether any of the other fellows m me
ring got hold of any bad money on that race
If they did they didn't find it out, and paid
the counterfeits back in their settlements
with winners. 1t struck me that this was
a pretty novel way Of showing the queer
The man that got me must surely nave
known the horse game, for Sad sam was
won several races after that.
Now. queer-shover who disposes OF
his goods in this way is pretty DANGEROUS
proposition. He stands hardly piker
chance of getting nipped when he's putting
the stuff down. for when a booknak er is
the block, with a crush surrounding hllf
and passing in bills of all denominations
hand-over-hand the layer hasn't time &c
put any microscope on the green. The most
he can do is to get a glimpse of one corner
of it out of the tail of his eye to find out
the size of the bill, and then he jerks 1t
over his shoulder to his cashier. The cash
Ter hasn't any time either. to look the bills
over carefully, for he's just as busy taking
it from the layer as the layer is in receiv-
ing it.
But the counterfeit gent who gets rid of
his articles this way has to be on the inside
of the racing game to make it pay, for in
order not to have to put down any large
quantity of the bad bills, he has got to come
pretty near knowing when the long shots
are going through. and these New orleans
handlers of the phony goods seem to have
had that information on several notable oc-
caSions during thee crescent city meeting.
When the old horse. Judge Steadman won a
race down there after having been played
down from 100 to l to 'aooto by pikers. the
cashiers for three of the layers in going
over the money taken in on the race found
each perfectly Nllainous s. bill in their
satchels. The bookmakers decided to have
a look at the people who cashei in on Judge
Steadman. and they did 1t didn't do them
any good, however. Every one OF the men
who had won on Judge Steadman was well
known to the bookmaksrs as a local piter
and horse follower who had been on the
circuit for years One of the booknfakers
happened to mention, in paying out to one
of these men his Judge; iSteadman money,
that he had taken in some N. G.. money on
that race. and that booknlaker would have
been slugged by the piker had not some
men jumped between the pair. Anyhow.
there wasn't a. man, in that crowd of col
lectors on Judge Steadman who could be
lit upon as aueer-shover, and all the
bookmakers could do was to growl and
stand for their losses. They kept the bad
notes as souvenirs. One Of them gave his
yearling baby the rank five to- play with,
and the kid got it down its throat and
nearly choked to death before 1t was yanked
out, macerated.
1T is not absolutely certain of course
that these counterfeit bills were pushed in
on us by long-shot players, but it looked pc
cuiar that they We're always taken in when
horses at big prices got over the plate first.
A man who'll take chance on showing a
50 or $40 counterfeit it is. reasonable to sup
pose, Is not going to do it for the sake of
winning on a short-Rriced favorits.s When
my slate goes up at .Benfing I'm going Il o
gaze pretty narrowly at the money l take
in, although I don't suppose counterfeit
handlers take many chances in WASH
ington, where the green papers are made,
as thew do etSaWhereD