Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-06-05
where wages were low

split the difference and make it half
as much again, or get somebody else
! to do your navigating.
5 "A friend of mine had horse that
he had named Juggler. Juggler could
! run fast. At any time he went after
: it. at any distance, with any kind of
weight up to a bale of hay, he knew
how to get home.
We'll, one day after Juggler had
| won 2-to-5 race in a dog lope, the
man who owned him hadn't cent.
| having gone to the bad playing the
other ones, and he came to me with
his grief.
I've got Juggler in for Thursday
he said, and, Of course. he'll be the
short-priced one. The bunch he's cot
to meet is leetle bit better than he's
! run with down here, but he'll walk in.
/ anyhow, unless an arrangement or so
is made
"'Uh-huh,' said l. Ask me a hard
one. You know the boy, don't you?''
So it was up to me. l saw the weazen-
face that same evening. Said l:
This is one Of yours for $500 All
you've got to, do is to get to nodding
in the stretch and choke Juggler to
Death, or nearly. How about??
Ten minutes later had undertaken
to pay him $1,000 in arvance for the
little piece of work.
THE only way said to the boy,
! then, that you can beat Juggler is to
wear him out before the race. IF you
don't do that he'll run to win and cop
the dough. What | want you to do is
to take him out of this stall about a
quarter past tomorrow morning and
ride him all the way to Camden and
back at dead swing. Then at post
time he'll be tired. Are you there?"
"I'1l kill him. responded the
weazen-faced person, and then
thought the business was about right
All that my pal, the owner of
Juggler, and 1 had to do was to play
the second choice, mutt that figured
500 per cent. above the rest of EN-
with Juggler out, and then ride over to
Philadelphia and make Chestnut
street look like a sartorical shambles.
However, we were not doing a blind
stunt, and SO we got couple of stable
men to see to it that this keen jock
really ran Juggler on the boulevard at
dawn's early light. | don't mind tell
ing you right now-what we didn't
know ourselves until later-that both
Of these rubbers went right to sleep
in their little white trunkle beds in
stead of seeing to it that Juggler had
his quick exercise
Eyes, Juggler won-by about a quar-
ter of mile. The boy who needed it
so bad had piped us through the sewer
system, and am free to say that when
we returned to Philadelphia we did
not cherish that boy any more.
Far be it from me- remarked
Jugglers owner to me, TO entertain
any i'll will toward so promising
young person, but if l don't have him
hung out to dry before I'm seven days
older, my life won't be worth S235 to
me, nor am l humming any swan
song
$50 Juggler's owner once more in
l repaired unto the place of conference
with this bright young rider of races.
Little man. said l to him, we
know that you couldn't hold Juggler,
and that he got away from you. But
we want to try again. Fetch him home
tomorrow. You'll be in right and with
the best of the betting-but we can
see now that it's so much easier
to fetch him home that that's the only
way he's going to be ridden in the
future
Fifteen hundred is about what he
| thought he could do the job for, and
| told him that he'd have ticket of
that size to stick into his right bootleg
before parading Juggler to the post.
"Just II minutes before Boots and
| Saddles went for the race in which
Juggler was to walk home on the bit,
| 1 went to 'Stovepipe Dick Blundell,
the black man that used to make a
penny book for men of his tribe at
/ Gloucester in those days, and had him
write me a ticket with carpenters
pencil, 500 to 500-Juggler was at
1 to 8 in the betting. l took the ticket
to the paddock and slipped it to the
weazen-charted midget who had the
leg upon Juggler. He slipped the
ticket into his boot.
"Juggler walks said he, and then
I went into the ring and stood tap on
Juggler, as did Juggler's owner
well, that's about sufficient to get
| the curtain down. Juggler came home
| all alone, and his owner and 1 got away
with enough of the saffron papers to
| build two or three Gloucester grand
stands-but when the strong-armed
| jock had shifted into his multi and
gone after 'Stovepipe Dick to get his
| $4,000, and when the AfrO-American
! stoolman gave him the hood and re-
! ferred him to us-Juggler's owner and
l were standing by to study the jock
misery-in support of the contention
that the 1,500-to-500 transaction was a
matter of cents instead of doiIars-he
looked as if he'd been accidentally
nailed up in the steamroom Of a Rus
sianyb bath for about three weeks. The
next job that weazen-map did he got
the money in advance in silver, and
had it weighed on the hay scales at the
Chestnut street mint