Evening star., 1903-07-25
Low UNDER FIRE
For Half -Masting Flags on
City Hall
TIME OF PoPE's DEATH
RACE TRACK PLUNGER WHO
SWEARS OFF.
Much Work for the Agent of the So
ciety for Prevention
of Vice.

Special Correspondence OF The Evening Star.
NEW YORK July ~. 1903.
Mayor Low has already had to stand for
some racOuS criticisms because he ordered
the city hall flags half-masted upon the an
| nCuncement of the death of Pope Leo The
criticisms have assumed the form of letters
to the newspapers. No words of disapproval
of the mayors order have proceeded from
| the lips of minded Protestants. clercs
or laymen over this way. Indeed. during
the illness of the pontiff many of the nota-
| BILE Protestant divines Of New York and
Brooklyn uttered from their pupits words
of warm appreciation Of the exalted char
acter of the great old man who lay dying
in Rome. and in at least one Protestant
church in New York prayers were said for
the pope at the direction of the rector and
with the full Endorsement of the congrega
ton. AS one eminent Protestant clergyman
of New York expressed the matter. denomi-
national differences are and should be for
gotten when the shadow of death rests
| upon the figure of great Christian.
There's d race track plunger over here
who helps toward keeping the horsy ele-
ment of this population diverted His name
Is 'Davy Johnson. Mr.. Johnson's special
ty is swearing of playing the ponies He
always swears off publicly. too. and with
| entertaining petulance. During the last
eight or nine years this turn -me-loOSe John
son has passed up the joys of the turf spec
ulation once and always, forever and
day. at least two dozen times. Moreover.
he has been known to adhere to his reso-
luton never again to bet dollar the
thoroughbreds for as long two days-that
being his record. He generally lasts about
day, however On several occasions he
has been known to abandon the turf for
! n tor Inrn -n,rf Of hnn cArf
on the first race. and then scurry around
to get the prices being laid by the bookies
against the horses in the second event. He
| always has sheepish grin on exhibition
when he turns up at the track on the day
following his solemn declaration that he
has finished with the gee-geeS for good and
all. and states in reply to questions. that
he's only betting a dollar to have
interest whereas as a simple matter of fact
he has never been known to bet less than
$1,000 on his selections. and often bets So.
600 on the good thing that he likes par
ticularly well.
Hard Hit at the Metropolitan.
A couple Of weeks ago Mr.. Johnson WAS
known to have got in bad to the extent
of $1+O,OOO on the horse game since the be-
ginning of the metropolitan racing season.
Then he swore off for the remainder of his
life.
Whats the use?" he said. Iugubriously
after having lost a $4,000 bet by an eye
lash. ID je see that other horse Just stick
out his tongue and beat the one l bet on?
That makes the twentyfourth straight
loser I've played at this meeting It's all
off for mine. I'm done. I'm not all in-I
guess nOt--but l know when I've had
enough Sure do. Y can't beat 'em. No
body can It's foolish. Hasn't a man got
the swelled conk. anyhow, that thinks he
knows how to pick out Of eighteen horses,
say. the one horse that is going to run
ia Ster than the her ha,
it's idiotic. Few-oodge. Similarly. Oh fury
fury I'm all through Nobody'll ever see
little Davy ever bet a tin tag, milk ticket
or rain check on a horse again / wouldn't
bet a Fenian bond-good when Ireand's
free-on l to 10 shot that eighteen clair
voyants and future-dopers told me could
drop deal and still win. Watch little Da-
vid.''
Mr.. Johnson was in the paddock early on
the following day. critically examining,
with his head cooked to one side and a
blade of grass between his teeth. after the
approved manner of turfiteS, the horses
that We're scheduled to go in the first race.
He managed to get $1,000 down on a 10 to
shot that won that first race in what Mr..
Johnson termed "a stroll" and then it
could be observed that little David felt bet
ter.
Changed your mind, Davy?" his friends,
grinning. asked him.
Nav" Mr.. Johnson replied. "I just
came down to bet couple dollars for me
aunt on a good thing.
1t has come to be the regular thing now
adays, for the regulars at the race tracks
to stand by to see Davy Johnson swear
off again.
Hey. youse fellies,' the precocious ur-
chin who acts as messenger for the
Brighton Beach race track press stand
called out to the busy turf reporters in the
stand the other afternoon, "Davy John
sons slapped eight tousan' dead one
-reg'lar libster-in dis race"
Stand by" called out the dean of the
rtI "a nf
and listened. ''All hands meet at the
fourth stanrhion in the betting shed i'm
mediately after this race-Davy Johnson
will be swearing off again..
A Busy Official.
One OF the busiest little men In New York
for a good many years past has been the
chief agent of the Society for the Suppress
sion of Vice His most hateful bette noir is the
nude in art. If he could have his way he'd
unQuestiona bly, dixie the Venus de Milo out
in ii rainy day skirt and shirt waist and
the footed Mercury in pair of golf
pantaloOns at the very least. He is said
to screen his gaze, and to shudder visibly.
every time he Is compelled to Iook-and
compelled to look is not so bad-at the
hopelessly immodest gilded Diana who
poses herself on one foot way up at the
top of the Madison Square Garden tower.
Many of the nudes at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art affiict him to the verge al
most of mal-de-mer. He frOwns awfully
on the Photographic reproductions of the
nudes exhibited in the Paris and Berlin
galleries.
And yet-and yet-one doesn't know.
Plenty of quite extraordinary things get
away from this chief agent of the Society
for the Suppression of Vice. Something
that is about as close to the line it we'll
could be is now nightly exhibition at one
of New York's high-priced roof gardens.
and yet no visible effort has thus far been
made to suppress it. The something Is Il
protracted series of shadowgraphs. life
siee, thrown upon a big screen, the roof
being darkened for the purpose. These
moving shadowgraphs portray with start
ling realism the efforts of an exceedingly
shapely young woman to find, in the pr-
vacy of her apartment. a missing hose-sup-