The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-05
AMUSING FEATURES OF GAM
BLING AS CARRIED ON AT
AMERICAN RACE TRACKS
HOW SOME TAKE THEIR
LOSSES AT THE GAME
PecuIiarities of Few of the Famous
: sports" Who Are and Have Been
Prominently in the Public Eye for
Many Years-W. X. Vanderbilt's Be-
lief in Hoodoos Established.
Special to The Globe.

Speclal to The Globe.
NEW YORK, Oct. Anew York's
race tracks, the tracks within easy
reach of the metropolis, not those dis
family situated throughout the state,
are furnishing their annual show, and
show it is which never loses its SYM
pathetic and spectacular interest, Of
race going and hard betting men and
women, with all the accessories of the
living drama
Mascots and mummers-these, if one
leaves the horses out of account-are
the leading features of the show. Be-
cause every bettor is more or less
hummer, playing the horses and his
part in his own individual way; he
has his own odd turns and twists, and
while he is at the track he exhibits that
separate side of his character which
only appears during his horse-racing
moments and is as distinct from his
other self as any one man is human
personality distinct from any Of his
fellows.
Mascots and hoodoos all these rae
ing men believe ill., and their prefer
ences and diversions in this respect are
as varied as their own physical aspects,
their social and financial status-and
their luck on the turf
Sheepshead Bay is the centering
point of metropolitan racing gaiety
just now, and all the big men who
make and lose and win big bets and
are responsible for the maintenance of
big racing stables are to be found there
on big days. AS millionaires are OBJ
jects of interest in all their aspects,
they become so specially when they are
in the throes of excitement and uncer-
tainty incidental to race-going. Moth
ing can be imagined, more inspiring Of
its kind, than Sheephead Bay track in
the height of the season.
} Mascots Have Been Many.
Lea out the present William K.
Vande Jilt, James R. Keene and Will
lam c. Whitney, "Mr. Roslyn" (and
such new-fangled American female
betting and horse-owning combinations
modelled on a type long familiar on the
English TURF, I thought today, while
at Sheepshead, in a partly retrospective
mood, Of famous figures who have
(some still do) hoped and feared, made
piles and scattered them, on this cele-
brated track. OF mascots these famed
favorites Of fortune have had money;
of personal peculiarities they have had
even more.
Mike Dwyer, for instance, when
race was in progress, always held in
his hand, as another man might
watch, an immense copper penny For
this lucky piece he once received a
5ocular offer of $1,000, but as Dwyer
could not associate POPULARITY with his
sacred mascot he very gravely refused
the thousand.
George e. Smith, or 'Pittsubrg
Phil" the great plunger, although a
man of very practical mind, and one
who was known as confident in his
own judgment of the winning form of
a horse, still was not invulnerable to
the mascot mania.
He always delighted in posing HIM
self at the left of the judges stand,
and no one ever saw him there without
his emerald scarf pin. This he was
wont to rub, as Aladdin did the Won
derful lamp, before the horses started.
There was a magic in his mascot, he
considered. And his thinking so was a
remarkable thing, because he was such
a close watcher Of the running form of
every horse, and was credited with
giving so much close attention to their
actual performances and with having
the capacity to make such good use of
his eyes and memory that at the end
of the season he would rake in big
profits by betting successfully on
horses whose possibilities were previ-
ously recognized and still remembered
by him when other bettors had lost
sight of them.
Riley Grammar, PIunger Prince.
The stands are filled with people and
brilliant with color, betting men wage
war over wagers in the ring, and above
the hum of humanity en- masse the
bands are blaring bravely, as if they
light to assert the madness of the
..toverbial saying that music can Sue
cessfully exercise the savagery latent
in the breasts of men. 1 am remem-
bering the positive belief of that
prince of plungers Riley Grammar,
that he could have no possible luck if
he wore expensive clothes. Good
clothes were his hoodoo He was al
ways the shabbiest man of his stand
ing at Sheepshead Bay. It always
used to be joke here how disappoint-
ed celebrity seekers always We're when
Grammar was pointed out to them. OF
course they looked for man flashing
with giant diamonds and perfect in all
the details of raiment. What they
really saw was a person of conspicu-
-ously cheap attire. The following is
what Grammar said about it to me:
81 shun swell clothes as 1 would the
devil. They've done me too much
damage for me to fool with them ever
again. Let me tell you something I
one set up in the swell business and
sold out again next day. 1t happened
this way: I had made good money,