The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-11-08
ELECTION BETS.
Kansas City Starr

CKansas City Starr
When the returns are coming in on
the night Of national election the man
whose whiskers are four feet in length,
who watches the bulletin boards with
absorbing interest, may not be tempt
ing the wind. The chances are ten to
one that he is a man who four years
before made a freak election bet and
having been sorry ever since he lost, is
: hoping that the result Of this election
may free him from a. bondage that is
/ becoming unbearable. Men betting on
horse races, cards or other ordinary
uncertainties of life usually stake
! money or property. On elections they
/ are prone to bet whiskers or furnish
other evidences Of temporary insanity
IN every national campaign thou
sands OF freak bets are made on the
result of the election by men who rare
~ if ever indulge in any game of
chance. The favOrite election wager
seems to be an agreement that the
loser shall not shave until his party or
candidate is successful. Sometimes
this is carried to the extreme of a hair
cut, but whiskeres are the popular
stake. They save the bills of the bar
| Der, which may help to console the
loser, Then there is the favOrtte wager
of fat men, one pushing the other on
a WheelbarrOW around a block or up
/ and down the principal thOroughfares
Of the city or town in which they live.
Men have painted their faces many
! colOrs, shaved their heads and eye
bTOWs, walked abroad in sackclOth and
/ ashes carried each other on their
shoulders and INDUCED in many other
alleged amusements to prove their 10y
atty to the cause oftparties or candi-
dates.
Decrease Of Heavy Betting.
The amount of money. bet on the re-
suit of national elections is trihing
when considered in connection with the
| fact that on no other question is there
such IN even and intense division Of
public opinion. Il recent years the bet
ting on elections asOsteadily decreas-
ed, because the professional gamblers
and men accustomed to wager large
/ sums on games of chance have discOV-
/ cred that no man can tell in advance
/ how an election is going and that in
| formation that should be accurate is
! often misleading, and the professional
/ gambler bets, not for excitement or
/ party loyalty, but to win. The high
water mark of election betting was
/ reached in 1892, and the lesson of that
/ election served as a warning to hun
/ dreds of men who thought they had
straight tips and a good thing" The
! odds were all on Harrison, yet CIeve-
| land was swept into Office on a political
| landslide which was a complete sur
prise to the campaign managers.
On that contest of 1892 there was
made in New York the largest cash bet
| of which there is any authentic record
| in political annals. This bet was for
/ $4,000 a side, and Billy Edwards of
! the Hoffman House was the stakehold-
er. The money was put up by a syn
dictate of politicians. On the Repub-
lican side there We're seven men inter-
ested and on the Democratic side there
were three known principals BY
agreement with the stakeholder the
names of the men were never made
public. The wager was purely a, gam
bling transaction, each side believing
! IL had the better chance to win. In
the same campaign Edwards held
stakes in several bets of s. 600 and
$4,000 each, but the principals to these
/ wagers were in no case men who at
the time We're known as large specu-
latOrs on the result of the election.
There was considerable betting on
the natiOna! election of 1885, and near
the close of the campaign is was
charged that the Republican national
committee had set apart a large sum
OF money to be Staked on the result
with view to changing the odds and
thereby influencing doubtful and hest
tating voters in close states. The Re
publican politicians then as now con
/ gregated at the Fifty Avenue hotel il
New York. and there the betting money
was offered. One night Colonel Viii
I liam j. Brown, a noted Democratic pol
/ ltlclan OF great courage and means, en-
tered the corridor of the hotel witt
100000 in cash and announced tina
he was looking for Republican,
with money to bet on election. H
! took every bet offered at the prevailin!
odds and called for more. In less thar
an hour he had bet the Republicans t,
standstil and could find no NOR
takers Tor his money. Most OF tn
wagers he made were amounts rangini
from $500 to $4,000 His losses on tina
, election Colonel Brown, according t
his friends, more than recouped in 1885,
when he again wagered large sum OF
/. Cleveland.
There was a time when the publ
t believed that the odds for or agains
. a candidate for president indicated tn
. probable result Of the election. Expert
2 enced politicians say that belief wa
: / completely exploded in 1892 when n
+ one who made a wager suspected tn
4 ! Democratic landslide which occ rec
Another popular belief about electio,
= betting is vigorously denied by tn
: leaders and campaign managers o.
e both sides. There is the impression tina
; national committees use money
t make Wagens with view to infiuencin
/ those hesitating and uncertain voter
2 VINO want to be on the winning sids
3 IN answer 70 this the men who conduc
campaigns say they never have enoug
= money TO pay the legitimate expense
r Of campaign work and therefore can
n not AFFORD 10 divert any Of their fund
e into pools of wagers.
Nevertheless politicians know We
G the influence that the sight of actua
y | money put up to back an opinion o
e the result of the election has on a Ger
e tain class Of minds. and they take ad