The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-06
THESE WOMEN BET
EVERYDAY SCENES AT NEW
 ORLEANS RACE TRACK.
Feminine Plungers Who Stand on the Benches and Root for the Horses of Their
 Choice.
New York Sun.

New 1ork sun.
 '"The more a man knocks about this country-and others-the tighter becomes his conviction that for absolute, hard shelled self-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-metaphorically speaking, of course Its to be at a horse race when her money is pounding down the home stretch with a score of other hoofs gobbling the track alongside.
 Maybe you've been at Morris Park on occasions of that sort. And maybe you think that the New York woman climbed out of her shell and stood on it and even lost it in the shuttle. Maybe you 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 off excitement as if it were steam, all shrieks and toots.
 Down in New Orleans. for instance. the jockey club is having its winter meet ing, 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 without any holes in it. You've heard about soft Southern voices, I suppose? All l want to say Is, put cotton in your ears when you go into the grand stand at New Orleans. l give you my word, the women out at Morris Park are deaf mutes compared with those dark-eyed Creoles down there. Tn the first place they're the most ar- rant lot of little gamblers that ever wore | rabbits foot. By actual count they | outnumbered the men in the grand stand | when l was there, and 1t was poor ladies weather at that. With bright skies and warm days I believe the men would have | to stick to the rail.
 And bet? Why, the messengers out at Morris Park lead lives of inglorious ease compared with their fleet-footed cousins at New Orleans. They have to be feet 1 footed. for it's hustle, hustle, hustle from | start to finish.
 "One-third of the women bet on every race; another third of them bet as long as their money lasts; and the other 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 and condition and all that sort of thing.
 | The woman who bets on Ere Pass be- | cause she once rode on one, or on Albert l Lee because she used to know a man by | that name, or a Nasturtium because she | naQ a IOVely pea or em laBC summer that sort of woman is conspicuously ab- | sent; which is somehow queer. You ex- pect those light-headed Southern women | to do things that way; but when it comes to betting, they're as practical as a weigh. ing machine.
 ''The moment the horses go to the pos | the women climb on the benches, bu
 they don't really break loose till the
 horses get to the quarter. Then, m!
 friends. if you have ears prepare to stuff
 them.
 Come on, Telamonv shrieks a girl
 and she stamps her foot as if she wer'
 ordering/a a disobedient slave.
 'They all yell and screech to their ow1
 particular horse. calling It by name anc
 for one delirious half minute shriekini
 confidential statements at the top of thei
 voices. And then it's all over and, i
 they have won. they dance up and down
 and, if the have lost. they laugh fo the most part and change their gum t the other side while they philosophical, remark. Easy come, easy go.'
 "As for the -confidearo they had jus been piping off, probably nobody but yo
 and some other stray Northerners-ha
 heard a word of them. The Southerner
 were all in the chorus. and. as nobod
 can use his lungs and his ears to advant
 age at the same time, the condolences ar
 pretty safe with you and the tattered at
 mosphere.
 T was scattering little sunshine ou
 at the track myself one day-doing m, duty by the Society of Indigent Book
 makers. you know-and about the fourtl race I got to the point where I remem bered that charity begins at home so climbed up into the grandstand to get ou
 of the way of temptation. You know hoy
 that is, guess. Had those faint spell ] yourself sometimes.
 Well. this time 1t was worth it. Ther
 was woman near me who had playe black horse with red flannel wristlets- Monos it's name was-and she was S
 sure of her choice that she'd aread
 picked out the horse she was going t
 play her winnings on. She was 50 sur
 that-well. I almost had heart failur . till caught a messenger on the run an ,, got in a bet just as the first tap of tn i bell sounded.
 Well. I'll admit that the woman di : her level best to get Monos in ahead.
 suppose Fitzgerald really started tn horses, but felt as if my unknown lad : friend was taking a large hand in il
 She told 'em to come back just about a
 emphatically as Fitz did, and I rathe 7 think she fined several well-meanin t jockeys, though the fines were not posted "All this time. mind you, a dozen othe women were doing the same stunts. An
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