The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-04-07

piness that was ever observed in this
| locality.
! The name Thomas Foster, was be-
/ hind a lot of winnings on the colt. A
/ New York tailor on his way back home
/ from Palm Beach, stopped off for the
! Bennings races. He placed $50
straight on Tommy Foster at 200 to l.
| The reason 1 made the bet he
/ said as he tucked his $4,000 roll away,
was that a few years ago 1 employed
a cutter named Thomas Foster who
was about the fastest proposition that
ever hit up a dirt road. He was so
blamed speedy that I couldn't get more
than three days work a week out Of
him. and I finally had to fire him, al
4 though he was great workman. So
l argued that there couldn't be any
kind of proposition, two or tOur-leSged
with a swifter gait than Tommy Fos-
ter, my fired cutter, and l played the
colt purely on that hunch.'
A motorman on the trolley car line
which goes TO Bennings had s. on Tom
my Foster at $50 10 /.
a pal of mine on the San Fran
cisco cable line a few years ago was
duck named Tommy Foster he eX
planned, and one day. when he had
a bun on, he turned his car loose down
and up the San Francisco hills and
gave his passengers a ride that they'll
never forget. He must have shot his
car over the two-mile route in less
than two minutes. That was a good
enough bunch for me. and when I saw
this Tommy Foster entered l scooped
together the five, got a sub for my car
and pulled down seven hundred and
half on the hunch."
A party of racetrack telegraphers
were in on the killing. On the night
before the race Tommy Fosters train
er sent twenty or thirty kilograms to
friends in various parts of the coun-
try. informing them that the water
melon was ripe, and advising them to
get down.
He didn't name his horse in the tele-
grams, but an operator who sent
some of these wires did a bit
of tracing. and located the good
thing He passed the word around in
a very quiet way to fellow craftsmen,
and most of them profted to the ex-
tent of hundreds. one operator won
out $1,000 on the privately circulated
tip.
A tipster was living at the same
boarding house in Bennings with the
trainer of Tommy Foster and he over
heard conversation between the
trainer and a stable hand which gave
him a cue. He tipped Tommy Foster
to win the race on the day of the kill
ing, and distributed his tips free to
passengers of the trolley cars on their
way to the track.
Tommy Foster was set down in his
tips as cinch and a pipe and
moral and the good thing of the year,
the tipstar's main idea being to get
n long shot over the plate so as to
enable him to sell his tips for the re-
mainder of the meeting. He didn't
have a dollar on the Fonso colt him
self however, and his disgust with
himself was so acute that he proceed
ed to get a colossal jag which landed
him in the District farm for a three
months sentence.
A coal passer from the United
States steamship Dolphin, which is at
tached to the Washington navy yard,
rolled and sagged around the track
grounds on the day of the killing with
such a bOuntiful cargo aboard that h
had to be warned several times that
if he didn't trim ship he'd be put off
the grounds. He had more than 800
in bills tucked in the bosom of his
shirt, and just before the first race he
numbered up to one or the boOkmak-
ers and placed SO on each of the
long shots-there were five horses in
the race at 10 to l or better-and he
caught Tommy Foster at 200 to l.
After the race an officer, seeing that
the sailor was surrounded by a crew
of track vuHures, put him into hack
and sent him away from the track.