The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-24
7 INFAlLING HUNCH
" OF SHORT END JIM.
A Ticket Becker Who Always Bet
on improbable Things, yet
Generally Won.

said a San Francisco man. Jim was
prosperous Kearney street ticket scalper'
who did his share in keeping San FRANCISCO
from becoming solemn a few years ago
Thew called him Short End because jim
would take hold of the punk handle TO
any old kind IF gambling ProPos'ioi
IN prefer ence 10 the long end
.One day, for instance. Jim was walking
along Mission street with friend when they
met I'D with dog fight. The canine con-
tenders were likely looking brindle ouii
terrier and blocky fox terrier. Inc pun
was putting it all over the fox when jim
and his companion got along
II guess I'd better pull that brindle on.
said ,Jin1,s friend. The fox looks like
somebody's pet, and he'll be sausage IN
minute
"Let EN- alone said Short End JIM
That fox is only sparring for an opening
and he'll be chasing the bull in the direction
Of the Cliff House in lees than three minutes
Bet you hundred he will.
"You're on said Jim's companion,
for it's generally to 900 shot that
brindle bull terrier will macerate fox
terrier In q square mix.
-The bet was hardly made, though
of rolls in the dust. and when they got to
their feet arain the fox terrier had his tusks
sunk in the bulls throat and was gnawing
away as If he had dog biscuit under con-
siderstion. Then the brindle dog made
mighty effort, wrenched himself loose
from the fox. wheeled with his tell down,
and made off like coursing hound. only
hitting the high knobs and yelping like
laI hot ,x- two NJ al
his foretegs, ;yawned in bored kind OF
way. and trotted into the basement OF
the house where he belonged.
Short End Jim didn't know how to lose
bets like that. He and a couple of his
swaddies were passing in front of Al White
water frontgroggery one evening when they
were halted by the sight Of fight in the
saloon between a couple Of man-o'-war's
men. One Of the blueJackets was coal
HEAVIER over a fathom high and the other
one was perky little bo'sun's mate of about
S feet 8. They pulled each other out OF the
saloon and punched each other all the way
across the street to the Clay street dock.
When they reached the docks edge the
idea of each Of them seemed to be to chuck
the other into the water.
THAT little tar'll be wet in a minute
remarked one of Pearson's running mates:
Hope he knows how to swim.
s'Bet you hundred he tosses the big
mutt in promptly replied Short End Jim.
1It's on the sheet, was the quick come
back OF Jims friend, and then the other
friend asked Jim if he wouldn't let him
have hundred, too. of the same, and Pear
son nodded accommodatingly.
AT that instant the bo'sun's mate, who
was wiry, got the big coal HEAVIER slowed
around so that the latter's back was to the
water. Then he suddenly bent his knees
and bobbed downward, releasing himself
from the coal heavens grasp, at the same
instant giving the big bunker shoveller
butt in the breadbasket with bis head
There was loud splash and diego Gsher-
man was pulling a soggy coal passcr into
his felucca a couple of minutes later, while
Jim's two mates were overhauling their
pajams for the foolish currency.
"San Francisco is the town where the
street car companies first inaugurated the
scheme of only stopping at street corners.
Two days after the rule was adopted Pearson
bet pat that he could get even even SO tough
to stop in the middle Of a block. Jim's
friend figured that he would be just eating
this hundred up for he knew how much
fun the gripmen were having in derding
the not-next passengers who waited for
car rides in spots away from the corners.
Jim waited for the next cable car to get
under full speed from the corner Then
as the car bore down upon him, he spread
newspaper between the rails and calmly
stopped the car about two feet from Short
End Jim. who then got up and collected.
That was frame-up, OF course, and not
luck, but it helps to show how the cash
nearly always drifted Jims way.
"Jim never bet on the horses, although
he liked to visit the tracks for the airing
and the fun. He said that it was too much
like cinch-playing to put up money on the
horses--that the makers of the dope sheets
and-the raiihifds had put everybody wise
wasn't enough action and excitement in
that kind Of foolish and monotonous
betting.
some afternoon he was at the Oakland
keen after the sport. The third race on
the card was two-and-a -half-mile steeple-
chase affair. One of the horses in this
jumping event looked like such a moral
that twelve of the steeplechasers originally
carded to 60 were scratched to Lord Ches-
terfield-tfat was the name Of the pipe
leaving only two to run against him, and
those two only after second and third
dough :Wh.n the three ,enDers were psrsd;ne
over and then inquired of one Of his pals
the name Of the horse leading the pro-
cession.
That's Lord Chesterfield, the to ,
baby that's going to ska te home by margin
Of three hours was the reply.
Bet you hundred he falls down, said
jim.
a Done. said tho other, but won't
give you the worst of it, Jim, SO I might as
we'll tell you that this horse Lord Chester
field is one OF the best and safest jumpers
on the Coast, and that
Bet you another hundred Short End
Jim interrupted, that another Of the NUTS
in the race besides Lord Chesterfield falls
down, leaving only one OF EN- to finish
IN lay Ave hundred to your hundred
on that proposition, jim, was the others
swift reply-and that did look sure-enough
good for Jims friend, seeing that there are
only q very few cases on record in the his
tory Of steeplechasing in which only one
horse has finished.
1T happened that time, though, all right.
Lord Chesterfield made bobble OF II over
the second hedge, and went down like a
rocking chair under a member of the Fat
Mems Club, and the second choice in the
betting, after leading by ten blocks for
nearly the remainder Of the distance, took
Of too short at the very last hop and turned
a somersault, chucking his boy about thirty
feet tn the forward. The outsider, Is TO
chance to win, then strolled home by him