The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-18

nounced the operator stated that Tam
many had broken down hopelessly.
which was the fact. TammanyS bad
legs had let down under him in the
stretch, and the boy on him had to
dismount and lead him hobbling to his
shed. I believe that was Tammanys
last race.
"One afternoon four or five years ago
the combined pool rooms of Cincinnati
stood to lose nearly 100000, owing to
the woozy stubbornness of a drunken
OPERATOR.
THE fine FLY May Hampstead was to
go in big race at Louisville, her chief
opponent being a filly named Russia
good one, but not at all in May Hemp
steads class, it was thought at the
time. 1t was virtually a. match race
between these two, although there were
number of other starters, and May
| Hampstead was esteemed such clnch
at the tracks that the layers made her
a prohibitive ! to favorite.
"The Cincinnati poolrooms at that
time got their prices and results from
distributing station in the town in
stead of direct from the track, and on
this afternoon the distributing opera
tor had a leftover on that caused him
to get the prices on the May Hemp
stead Rush race all balled up, lie
made Rush the ! 10 s favorite and
clipped May Hampstead along as 10
to shot, just reversing the prices.
'"The room operators all fired queries
at him as soon as he sent the price list
in to them this way, asking him If he
hadn't made a mistake. But his jag
was streaked with stubbornness of the
kind that causes the soused one 10
insist that he's right without so much
as looking.
Mistake nothing he clicked back
to them all. The prices stand as /
sent EN-
THE soused operator saw that there
had been no changes in the list in the
second line of betting from the track,
and he keyed it along that the prices
stood as on the first line.
We'll. with all Of this confirmation,
and being totally unaware of the con-
dition of the distributing operator, the
poolrooms simply had to take the prices
on the big race as he sent them.
'rhe only way that the poolroom
people could account for the extraor-
binary reversal in the prices was that
something had happened to May Hemp
stead to destroy her earned standing
as a prohibitive favorite in almost any
race in which she was entered. Her
legs had been under some suspicion,
and the poolroom people figured that
the state of her underpinning might
be at the bottom of the peculiar price
on tap against her.
"Some of the more cautious poolroom
proprietors declined to take any money
on the race, but most of them deoid-
ed to book at the prices received from
the distributing operator. The players
simply gnawed the 10 to / against May
Hampstead like st. Bernard pups go
ing after slabs of dog cake.
They raced home and pulled up the
settin' room carpet and yanked out
the kitchen stove to hook to get May
Hampstead money, and by the time
the horses went to the Louisville post
stood to be set back almost half
million in the event of May Hemp
stead's winning. But she didn't win.
She couldn't negotiate the deep,
holding mud of the track, and Rush
all but distanced her. And II wasn't
until later in the afternoon, when the
burned operator had been snagged off
the distributing wire. that the pool
room folks learned that May Hemp
stead had been the to shot, instead
of Rush.
1.-The mistake ready enabled the
poolroom people to make q big win
ming, instead of colossal losing. for,
IL May Hampstead had been chalked
up at to s, none Of the poolroon
gang would have played her. where
as, at 10 to /, they went TO her with
such a swirl that they came near
breaking their arms edging up to the
counters.
"The bookmakers seldom get into