Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-14
BOOKMAKER'S TALE

THE gang down In Hot Springs recently
bestowed what IL known a. the hoarse boot
| upon Kid Weller. who, with Joe ullman,
operated the aake-any-old-b big store
book on the tracks around New York last
season." said a member OF the Metropolitan
Turf Association who dropped into Wash
ington on Monday on his way from the
Arkansas resort to the Isle Of Manhattan.
"A couple Of weeks ago one OF the plungers
down there. who was sick in bed. sent his
commissioner to weller's horse-hazard par
lor to put 5000 on an animal in one OF
the New Orleans races. The commissioner
became twisted on his way to Wei
ler's establishment and the money went
down on another horse in the same race
with a. somewhat similar name, a to
shot. When he hustled back to the room
Of the sick plunger with the ticket the high
flyer threw whatever came handy at the
commissioners head and ordered him to
romp back to Weller's place and request
him to rectify the mistake by taking the
81, 900 of the to shot and putting the
coin on the other one in the race that the
plunger had doped to win. Weller gave the
commissioner the gloat.
Not on your gold watch and CHAIN, he
said, fatty. to the worried commissioner
who had made the error. Each, and every
bet made beneath this bamboo tree stands
as It's made. What dye think l am,
moving picture? To the pines!'
But, pleadingly expostulated the hard
luck commissioner, III lose my job II you
don't make this switch for me-
Never mind the outin-the- snow music
on the E string replied Weller, heartlessly.
When dye think I began to take money
away from myself? That to 5 nursing
| In all by his little solitude. ease G. way
and let me Sleep
THE commissioner didn't dare go back
| to his principals sick room and tell him
"a rQfn tn "
| take, but hung around the room gnawing
his nails until the result of the race was
called off. Then he gave correct fmlta-
ton of Castilian castanet fandango and
raced back to the sick room with $1,000
in his Plymouth Rocks. The to, shot
upon which he had put the $1,000 by mis-
take came home in a mild amble, and the
Hot Springs crowd have been jouncing
Weller on the slack hawser ever since.
Now, man who makes race track
or poolroom book on the horses has got to
have spine, but there are a heap of occasions
| when it doesn't do for him to be pig-headed
When I'm on the block I'm never too busy
or too wrapped up in figuring out my per-
centage to take a bet off my sheet when
I'm civilly requested to do 1t took me
longwhile to annex that lesson unto myself
1t wasn't until l had long line of past
| performances behind me to prove it that
l tumbled to the fact that, so far as my
operations were concerned, anyhow, the
bets that people had made and then asked
me to wipe out were usually winning bets
When I at length reached this conclusion
I stopped handing folks the fan when they
asked me to erase bets from my sheet and
to transfer the money to other Joggers IN
the same races.
$4,000 worth of benevolence upon myself
by refraing from swelling up when asked
to rub a bet off my sheet 1t was at the
Aqueduct track. l had just finished put
ting up the figures on a maiden three-year-
old race when excited little man banged
his way through the crowd around my
STOOL stuck $40 bill within a couple of
inches of my nose, and yelled:
" May j., straight
MAY j., maybe you'll remember, was the
joke mare of last season whose price Kept
frightening out-they ran her nearly every
day-until one afternoon We pasted lo,OoU,
1000 and 1900, one-two-three, against her,
and took in money on her chance, at that
But on this day. because May j. was In
with a lot Of shellfish not much better than
she was herself-supposing that to have
been posslble-I had only 800 to 1 on tap
aginst her.
so I gave the little man with the hot
flush $1,000 to $40 against May j., and
looked upon the ten-spot as just about
right for dinner money and loose cigar
change.
Five minutes later I heard a great
somewhere behind my stool, and l wheeled
around to see what was coming OF. The
little man who had bet the $40 With me on
May J. was being backed into stanchion
out Dy the DTlCh VAIN, ny a us Ah"-oOiiSN
woman. his wife. She was some few cubits
taller than he was, and she looked as Il
she could have demolished him with both
hands tied behind her back. She was shak-
ing forefnger in his face and ordering
him. under dire threats, to get the $40 Off
of May j.. while he was trying to convince
her that May J. had chance.
Don't you dare try to tel me such
thing you tack-head.' she was saying to
him The very idee of your trying to
squander our installment money on such
laughing stock as May 1.-THE very idee!
You go to the man this instant and tell
him that l want that $40 put on the horse
that 1 told you to play, dye hear me-?
1.-The little man skunk over to my stool
half minute later.
"'Say. old man. he started to say, but
l cut him Off
Its all right, mate I said to him. 1
heard your wife passing it out to you and
| I'll fix you out Give me your number and
| I'll swab the May J. bet. What's the one
your wife told you to playa?
HE named the horse-I forget which one
| of the crabs it was-and I had the change
| made on the sheet. The little man went
away with his shoulders hunched forward,
looking blue.
"About eight minutes later May J. had
tottered home in front of her field. and l
was just 49, 600 on the nice side because l
| hadn't got the weght-lifter's vest on when
| the little man asked me to change tnat May
| J. bet I was in the same car with the
| little man and his raw-boned wife on the
in-trip from the track. She was jawing
| him at a great rate-and what dye suppose
she threw at him?
off you was anything like man at
all, stead of shrimp, heard her say to
| him, we'd have $1,000 right now. 'staed O.
| bein' broke-you wouldn't ha' let me or
any other fool woman make you take on
| that May J. bet!"
The Care of a Cold.