The sun., 1903-08-30

allowed to frame UP and get away with a
fifty thousand dollar WEIGH" said book
maker just returned from Saratoga, allud-
ing to a recent betting ring incident at the
Springs. Most Of the pencillers OF this
day and date are from, Missouri, and the
-betters have got TO show them.
Il can remember when the welchers
were as common "a cigarette smokers.
They are few and far between at this stage
OF il. The layers are not now accepting,
In lieu OF money, the upturned fingers of
every good fellow with whom they've
happened to take casual drink in hotel
CATS, as they used to. The man with the
horse bug who aspires to be digit player
has got to be right, and he has got to be
known to be right all up and down the
layers line before he can twist UP to
chalker's stool and get down on the thing
he likes without passing over the soap.
But we all have to stand for bite once
In while, nevertheless. was clawed
only once ct Saratoga this year. but it set
my sheet back a pat thousand. man
with Southern accent who had besn max
ing two hundred and fve-hundred dollar
bets In my book, and generally losing
them. for couple of weeks, nudged up to my
chair lust as I'd finished frescoing the prices
AGAINST the three horses In the Saratoga
Gun, He was a man with an engaging
face and manner. He said he'd like to have
a thousand dollars worth of credit on
Waterboy for the cup.
I'm So-and-So the proprietor Of the
Blank House. in Louisville he said TO me
IN franl, and agreeable way, and believe
they would tell you at the desk Of the Grand
Union that am all right. cracking smile
ms il even the thought of anything to the
contrary rather amused him.
Il took him on for the thousand, laying
him 81 zoo for il. There are so many swell
and dead-square Southern gentlemen in
the Saratoga betting ring that no layer
likes to take chance on turning one OF
them down. Waterboy pranced in hunk
last, and my man with the Southern accent
and the engaging manner didn't settle
within the period embraced by The book
makers almanac, twenty-four hours
IL asked about him then at the Grand
Union, but they didn't know him. He
sliced four other layers for thousand each
on the Cup, learned, and they had all
fallen, as ] had, 10 that Southern accent
and TO the exterior charm OF the boguss
personality.
an nine cases out Of ten. however, the
man who TO avoid Inconvenience Of paving
over large amounts of currency, desires
to become a credit better on the horses,
has got to be passed along and stood for by
some moneyed regular at the game whose
word is as good as his monaker. And even
then the layer has to take a chance on
standing for WEIGH. The sponsor for q
new man in the ring holds himself ethicelly
responsible for the man he introduces only
up to a certain point After the new man
has been doing business in tho ring, taking
down winnings and making good losses
for little while, he Is then considered 10
be on his own footing, and his sponsor
can't be looked to for a make-good in the
case of a welch on the part Of the man for
whom he has originally stood.
@IH the new man weches al once-a very
rare thing--of course, the sponsor feels
himself bound to come TO the front for the
amount of the WEIGH at settling-up time.
The sponsors who hold themselves in
definitely responsible Tor the men they
Introduce to the ring are as scarce as rainy
days in Death Valley, but, at that, I did
business at Sheepshead Bay with ore Of
this kind only last year.
The sponsor was a very well-known
man in the game, broker OF wealth who
has been racing horses of his own for
several years, and, what is unusual among
that class of owners, getting not only the
fun, but profit out OF it, A while before
the spring meeting at the Bay began last
year this broker-owner introduced me TO
young Californian, whom he had in tow
at an uptown hotel.
Make a mental Bertillon Of him., the
broker said to me, nodding in the direction
OF the young fellow with him. He's right.
He's had a couple Of years Of Cadeship
on the Coast tracks, and now he,s-along
this way to see some real racing. You
can let him go as far al he likes.
The broker-owner' say-so was just as
good as u Treasury order, particularly as
II was rare thing for him to give his oral
wise to new man on the horse market.
The broker introduced the young Cali
fornian to three or four others Of the layers,
and they took him as the minted article
just as had
"The young Californian bumped me for
thousands in straight winnings from the
go-off, and | never caught up with him.
He prodded the other ringmen with whom
he was making digit bets just as hard. But
his winnings, and n good deal more, all
went at the faro bank-it never was in the
cornucopia for any one man to beat two
games at one and the same time. On the
day before that Sheepshead Bay meeting
closed the young Californian didn't emerge
under the spotlight at settlng-up time,
but none of us was worried. He had got
on the wrong side Of my sheet about three
thousands worth on the day before, and
he was into four of the other layers about
the same amount each on that afternoons
play. He didn't appear at the track, but
We figured that maybe he was sleeping Off
a head or, something of that sort. The
next morning, though, his name appeared
under that head. The Seagoers, in THE Sun.
He had been gliding by the Hook at the
time he was due to make good
"The five OF lis who had been stuck got
together and famed il over, but none Of
us even suggested the idea of bracing
the broker r-owner for a make good on the
WEIGH of his protege. The young fellow
had been doing business with us for a
month on heavy scale, and by the end
of that time, according to the unwritten
rule: we were taking him as a big operator
on his own account. Before the races
began that day the broker wner came
around 10 do some settling of his own.
Understand that you fellows threw
the gaff into that California youngster
10 hard that ne had to take to the deep
water yesterday TO hide from you,' the
broker said to us, genially, and it was per-
fectly plain then that he didn't know any
thing about the WEIGH of the man he had
introduced.
Well said then, I wouldn't mind
having back what he's won from me during
,tc tWNfv 90 Il.