Evening star., 1902-08-16
ALL RIGHT THIS YEAR

years, or until the memory of this season
has been effaced," said d well-known
Washington hotel man who has been visit
ing the springs ever since it was mainly
the resort of wealthy planters from the
south THE pace up there this year is far
too swift for protraction from one year to
another 1t is something out of bounds,
almost incredible in its recklessness. If you
were to read in a book of fiction of any
such doings at an American summer re-
sort. or even at a notoriously swift one in
a foreign country, as have been the COM
monest sort of daily and nightly happen
ings at Saratoga this year you'd likely cast
the book aside something entirely too
absurd for belief. I've been at most of
the summer resorts in Europe where con-
ServatiyeneSs is an unknown quantity, and
at European winter resorts where. as we
say, everything goes but Saratoga this
year makes them all look like camp meet
ings.
THE gambling devil has got 'em all up
there as it never before clutched American
folks at any place of pleasurable assembly
that | ever knew about. The western
crowd has inoculated the fasteners with
the fever, so that all hands are wearing
the hectic flush bestowed upon the human
countenance by the Goddess of Chance, so
that all hands. men and women, up there
seem to little reck whether they are going
to the devil in a canter or not l can re-
member the day when refined women, even
those disposed to make their outings par
take of the holiday spirit to the very
farthest permissible point, never bet pub
licly on the horses. If they did any bet
ting at all they would wager gloves or
candy or such-ike with each other. Then
the period gradually crept along when the
less refined sort of women In the grand
stands would send small bets down to the
ring by the grandstand commissioners, al
though at first even this was done furtive
w " of thn ,at1y
feminine sportsmanship. From that came
the open grandstand betting In sizable
amounts by women of the flash variety,
such as actresses, and these were glanced
askance at by the women Of quiet conduct
in the stands.
We'll. within the past five years the
woman who goes to the races and doesn't
bet right here in little old Washington
even, as well as anywhere else, is looked
upon disdainfully by her observant sisters
in the stand as something unusual. But, in
spite of the fact that the women in the
stands of the New York ira cks have been
wagering quite good-sized amounts on the
races for a long time past women horse
bettors have never gone to the frenzied de-
gree of chance-taking on the beasts as they
nave this summer at the Saratoga races.
saw woman after woman-all reputable
and swagger wives of reputable men of
wealth, and very few of the latter owners
of racing strings-betting thousand dollar
bills on their picks in big fields of horses,
and they took their losses with all of the
cultivated sang froid of male plungerS who
have been at the game for more than A
score of years. | saw the wife of a Chi
cago man of business count of five one
thousand-dollar bills and hand them over
in a little wad to a grand stand runner.
This on Fonsoluca,' she said.
Even the grand stand commissioner was
stunned over the GOODNESS of the woman.
But, he said, 'Fonsoluca is a 10 to
shot and that ought to tell you how much
chance the horse has got. Do you want it
all put on straight or don't you want a
little of 1t for place and third?'
l didn't know that your hearing was
bad, said the woman, with toss of her
head. Had l known it l should have called
another commissioner. / want it all to go
on Fonsoluca straight
Il was close to the woman when the
horse Fonsoluca got beaten by mere
nose, which, of course, chseled her out of
a sOO,OOO winning. She laughed musically
glanced at her program, bit into a peach
and studied what she was going to play in
the next race. 1t was fine exhibition of
gameness of course, but 1 don't mind say
ing that L am sufficiently old fashioned to
prefer to have women less game, and more
feminine or womanly, or whatever you
choose to call it, about me-
And take that Saratoga Club. When we
go to Monte Carlo or Homburg or any of
the other famous gambling Institutions of
Europe we don't particularly object to
seeing our women folks clapping louis or
so on the tables, for, In such a setting, 1t
seems a bit picturesque to see them doing
it. although l could mention few cases
where clever American girls and women
have become hopelessly and disastrously
inoculated with the gambling fever from
their little plays, in company with their
men folks, at the European casinos But
It's all very different at the Saratoga Club
The women don't actually play at the
tables there, but literally hundreds of them
cluster around the tables in the adjoining
dining room, remaining there for hours
during al fnr
the purpose of sending their gold into the
gambling rooms to be played for them by
their men folks-or somebody's else men
folks. And you are to remember that these
are not by any means women of the half
world, or even declasse women. They are
women who figure in the very finest So
ciety of this land, not a few of them wo-
men who make the charm Of Washington
during the winter season-and yet at Sara
toga they have little or no thought of any
thing else from the hour they make their
frst morning toilet until they retire In the
morning than gambling in one form or
other.
There can be no doubt that the presence
and support of men like Mr.. William c.
Whitney and others, almost equally promi-
nent in Saratoga has served to gloss over
the situation in Saratoga this year and to
take good deal of the sin off Of it in the
minds of those who are doing the swiftest
paee-making. but have excellent reason to
know that Mr.. Whitney and his prominent
confreres have become considerably alarm
ed over the swfftness Of a game of which
they are more or less the involuntary spon-
sors, and that they would put the screws
down on the situation mighty quickly If the
thing hadn't rather slipped out Of their
hands. Buda-Pesth never was marker TO
Saratoga this year, Aix-la-Chapelle is a
religious settlement beside it, Monaco a
curfew- -mountaining village, Homburg a
quiet little seaside resort, and Ostend what
the sports term piker's game. Already
Saratoga has hopelessly broken scores of
men and women, and 1t is going to smash
a whole lot more before the season is over
Newspaper men are a pretty hard crowd to
shock, for some reason or other but the
gang of newspaper men that 1 met I'D at
Saratoga were actually shaking their heads
over the situation.
The stories that are proceeding from the
place, moreover, have got the conservative
people of New York to thinking and the tip
Is already out that the legislature is going
to do some things to Saratoga at its next
meeting that will make another season
there such as this season has been out of
the question. The Saratogans themselves
even. 1t is odd to say. the religious element
thereof appear to be exceedingly complaisant
over the situation and resent any suggestion
that the conditions be changed In view of
the tremendous stream of wealth that flows
into Saratoga during it's season perhans
their complaisance is natural enough but
from the Harlem river to Lake Erie there
&c in, Nau 70