The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-26
MONEY LENDERS AT EHETRACK
PAWNBROKlNG ON TIE SLY none
on THE .RaCECOURSES.
Diamonds the Chief Security--PledSeh
several Times I'm Doy Sometimes
The Hooked Race IIorse--Why a
. Pawnshop At the Trank Wouldn't DO.

Several Times I'm a Day Sometimes
The Hooked Raco Horse---Why q
Pawnsh0p Al the Trark Wouldn't DO
Il guess maybe the privilege Of conduct
ing pawnshops on the racctracks around
New York wouldn't be a big thing" re-
marked Tenderloin money lender at the
Brighton track the other afternoon. "If
the Jockey Club people would stand for
my putting UP little three-hall booth on
each OF the tracks during the New York
racing season, could easily afford to pay
them half the profits for the privilege,
and, charging very low interest rates on
quickly redeemed pledges, I'd be pretty
near ready TO retire rich at the end Of five
years"
The metropolitan racing body has often
been approached by responsible pawn
brokers ea ger to Offer almost any terms
for the privilege Of conducting a loan busi-
ness on the New York racetracks. Such
offers have Invariably been refused, and
probably always will be-. Money-lending
establishments are openly conducted with
the permission of the racing authorities
on several European racecourses, particu-
brly in Germany and Austria. But the
American temperament Is far different
from the 1cutonic and the Jockey Clubs
view is that pawnshops on the New York
tracks would be bad for the sport.
Nevertheless the lending of money on
personal property is quietly, not to say
furtively. carried on at the r9cetracks
around New York. A number of peripa-
tetic pawnbrokers. well known to most of
the regulars. are to be found lurking around
the betting ring stanchions when the game
is on, and they drive fourishing trade.
II is more than possible that their pres
ence OH the tracks il known or suspected
by the racing authorities. but as they are
all discreet men and as their ealings ere
conducted almost exclusively with the
hopeless, dyed n-the-wool regulars, their
opera tions are, at n rule, overlooked, Once
in while an outsider slips in who makes
his business too palpable, but such fellows
do not last long. Not long ago, at Sleeps
head Bay. one of them who undertook to
suggest to observant persons the nature
OF his business by wearing pin composed
of three gold balls in his scarf found him.
self waiting for the next trolley car within
very short time after he had entered the
track gate.
THE hardest work we have TO do ia to
keep under cover" remarked one Of the
track money lenders. we don't issue
any tickets to our customers, any more
than do the bookmakers on the New York
tracks.
1.-THE boys on my list know where to find
me when they need me. They pass over
their stuff, hand them the money, and
make brief memora ndum OF the deal in
my little book.
II scale my charges a good deal from
those charged In the regular pawnshops,
on account OF the short periods during
which / have possession OF most OF the
pledges that drift my way. Diamond
gear Is the only stuff handle aside from
valuable timing watches, and not too many
of them.
It's nothing uncommon for close
hauled regular sailing with the wind under
rsefed tops'ls to pop his stuff In several
times in. the course Of an afternoons racing.
last Saturday afternoon, for example. a
horse follower with whom I've been doing
business for years passed me his ring rock.
q six-carat blue-white gem, and took $500
on 1t.
THAT must have been about the thou
sandth time that I've had that ring in my
possession. I've often offered to let this
man have what money be needed without
taking any OF his stuff as security, but he
has always declined such offers.
at want to know that I'm running for
Blood he tells me. and that it's a case with
me of no land-right, no fiash-light.'
We'll, he got in right on the first race,
and pulled his circlet boulder out before
getting his velvet down on the second.
He got the dumperino in the second, and
snagged out $500 again on his hoop lantern
to bet on his pick for the third
"He put this one over and took the
Jagcrfontein flasher away from me be-
fore dropping his earned increment on the
fourth The fourth smudged him out again.
and the finger bracelet came my way once
more to enable him to toss bis regular $500
on the fifth
ale stuck his pencil in the right one in
this, getting 4 To against Lord Badge for
his $500 Again he hcrded me into my
corner and took the ring away from M,
and then he clapped 5000 his plush money
on the right one. Rostand, TO cop the final
event on the card, quitting the afternoon
away to the nice.
Hes been swinging right along up the
ljne this week, and don't figure on getting
him again until he comes back from Sara
toga Most of the boys on my little list
creep back from the Saratoga meeting
with theif kicks turned inside out, by the
way. What the ponies fail to do TO them
mp at the Springs the faro layout finishes
Il was the owner of a good racehorse
FOR week or SO at Morris Park last spring.
althor ~, of course, there was no record of
It, I had no colors registered with the Jockey
Club, and nobody on earth besides myself
knew anything about the transaction ex-
cent the owner who hooked the nag with
me
IL only took the horse because the owner
insisted upon it, and had it ever come to
that which knew it wouldn't-the owner
could have repudiated the whole transaction
and have had me put off the grounds, sup
posing : had been imbecile enough to want
10 claim the racer. But had known this
owner for years, and I knew that he was
right:
horses--he'd been fighting 10 keep of the
rocks for some time--and the best one nj
the trio was in race one afternoon. The
owner dug me out.
1a'I want to get bet down on my plug,
he said to me- but I'm all in, and Pm not
going to ask any of the bookies for markers
it 'ud tickle, some of them toe much to
l,nnuy that thev'h r,uahcd mo IN the lac