Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-10-20

wager suspected the democratic landslide
which occurred. Another popular belief
about election betting is vigorous denied
by the leaders and campaign managers On
both sides-that is. the impression that ma
tIonal committees use money to make
wagers with view to influencing those
hesitating and uncertain voters who want
to be on the winning side. In answer TO
this the men who conduct campaigns say
they never have enough money to pay the
legitimate expenses of campaign work, and
tn. refnre cannot afford to divert any or
their funds into pools or wagers.
Never heleSs, politicians know well the
influence that the sight of actual money
put up to back an opinion on the result OF
the election has on a certain class OF minds,
and they take advan age of this where II Is
possible to do so without eXpending cam
paign funds necessary for other purp Is IS.
Recently man high in the political coun-
ellis of his party heard that certain busl-
rcSS man of the party intended to wager
several thousand dollars on the result of
the election. He sent for the business man
and asked if it was true.
1--WE got the money ready, said the lat
ter. "All I'm waiting for now is to see II
the odds change. Then I'll put it up in big
amounts small"
Don't put it up here said the political
manager.
why not?" asked the other in surprise.
Because it won't do us any good. This
is sure state. Take it to SO and So He
named one of the states for which both
parties are making a desperate strugg e.
But l probably can't get up so big
sum in that s ate.
'All the better" said the politician. "If
you can't. then take it somewhere else, but
the showing of that much money to bet
will do US a lot of good there.
All the professional Stockholders agree
! that most of the election betting so cal d
is pure bluff. Some men seek temporary
| notoriety by announcing that they have
| made large bets on the result of election;
| others by the statement that they are
! Ia
! have a way of disappearing when men with
money are looking for them.
| Big Bluffs.
| Recently the writer undertook to anthem
| ticate a number of large political wagers
alleged to have been laid and duly pub
| lished- undoubtedly in good fath-in the
newspapers. in past years. In consider
| able majority of the cases Billy Edwards
| was named as stakeholder. He went over
the list culled from Newspapers ana crossed
| out about three-fourths of the items as
| purely fictitious or bluffs that had
| never been made good. Mr.. Edwards says
| that election bets of 5000 and upward,
/ where the money Is actually put up, have
| been few and far between. Such bets are
| usually made by men who avoid notoriety,
| and they seldom find their way into print:
| Frederick S. Gibbs, the republican national
committeeman from New York has been
| credited with the making or management
| of heavy wagers. To a friend who asked
| him recently for some facts about These
| wagers he said that he had made only one
| bet on an election in his life, and that was
| years ago and for a very small amount
He also said that he had never held stakes
| or arranged any large wager on the result
| of an election.
Men who gamble and hold stakes In New
| York assert that ii is common occurrence
for small politicians to make wagers OF q
! few dollars a side and then give to the
| newspapers stories of the betting Of large
| sums in which they claim to be interested
There is always some betting In Wal
street on the result Of national and state