The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-29
THE WOMEN WHO BET,
EVERYDAY SCENES AT THE NEW
 ORLEANS RACE TRACK.

Ch.iee-The Gambling Fever In the
 S,uIh.
 "The more a man knocks about the others-the tighter be- comes his conviction that for absolute, hard-shelled possession. the New York woman is without rival said a man who is just back from the alleged sunny south. If there's one thing more than another that's calculated to make her jump out of that shell. and prance on all fours-metaphorlcally speaking, of course-its to be at horse-race when her money IS pouno- ing down the, home stretch with score of other hoofs gobbling the track along side.
 Maybe you've been at Morris park on occasions of that sort. Ana inaype you think that the New YorK woman climbed out of her shell and stood on It and even lost it in the shu e. Maybe VOL think you saw women get excited.
 Don't fool yourself. If you want to see the real thing you'll have to go down in Dixie, where they let of ex- citement as if it were all shrieks and toots. .-
 Down in New Orleans, for instance, the Jockey club is having its wlnter meeting and the atmosphere has been torn into such tatters that they're thinking of putting it on the bargain counter and sending north for one 3y, if VNl1'Vp heard about soft southern voices, l suppose! All want to say is, put cotton in your ears when you go into the grand stand at New Orleans. I give you my word, the women at Morris park are deaf
 mutes compared with those dark-eyed | CreoIes down there.
 Tn the first place they're the most
 arrant lot of little gamblers that ever
 wore A rabbits foot. By actual count they out-numbered the men in the
 erand-stand when I was there, and It
 was poor ladies' weather at that:
 With bright skies and warm days l
 believe the men would have to stick to the rail
 And bet? Why the messengers out 1 at Morris park lead lives of inglorious ease compared with their tieet-footed cousins at New Orleans. They have to eb feet footed for it's hustle, hustle
 hustle from start to finish. .
 "One-third of the women bet on eve
 ry race; another third of them pet as long as their money lasts; and the oth-
 CT third would. bet if they had any
 money to begin with. Moreover, they
 bet as men do. They try to pick the
 winner by figuring out records ano
 condition and all that sort of thing.
 "The woman who bets on Free Pass
 because she once rode on one, or or
 Albert Lee because she used to know
 man by that name or on Nasturtiun
 because she had lovely bed of 'en
 last summer--ythat sort of woman l:
 conspicuously absent; which is some how queer. You expect those light
 headed southern women to do things that way; but when it comes to bet Eting, they're as practical as weighing
 machine.
 'The moment the horses go to tn lpost the women climb OF the benches
 but they don't really break loose till tn , thorses get to the quarter. Then. m! lfriends. if you have ears prepare t Istuff them.
 Il "Come on, Telamon! shrieks girl and she stamps her foot as if she wer ordering disobedient slave.
 'They all yell and screech to thei , own particular horse, calling 1t b , name and for one delirious half minut , shrieking confidential statements at tn , ton of their voices. And then it's a, . over and, if they have won, they dane
 | up and down; and. if they have los I they laugh for the most part an
 change their gum to the other sid a while they philosophically remarl f Easy come, easy go.'
 I "As for the confidence they had jus , been piping off, probably nobody br $ you-and some other stray northernel n l-has heard word of them. Tf e southerners were all in the chorus, an . as nobody can use his lungs and h V ears to advantage at the same tim . the condolences are pretty safe vii o you and the tattered atmosphere. e q was scattering a little sunshine o' e at the track myself one day--doing IT r. duty by the Society of Indigent Bool [. makers, you know-and about u F fourth race. I got to the point where - remembered that charity begins , home; so I climbed up into the gram
 stand to get out of the way of tempt ,- ton. You know how that is, l gues if Had those faint spells yourself som h times.
 1t swell, this time it was worth ,s There was woman near me who h' ,o played a black horse with red fam ,- wristlets-Monos it's name was-and $ re was so sure of her choice that she'd es ready picked out the horse she was g m ing to play her winnings on. She w if so sure that-well, I almost had hea ,e failure till caught a messenger on of run and got in a bet just as the i'll ,e tap of the bell sounded.
 le Well, I'll admit that the woman C v- her level best to get Monos in ahes le I suppose Fitzgerald really started
 horses, but l felt as if my unkno' - lady friend was taking a large hand
 it. She told 'em to come back Jl s about as emphatically as F'itz did, a I rather think she fined several N I,,,o,pipor iocLa1,s though the fines W(