The Saint Paul globe., 1903-11-08
MAN WHO PICKS
THE WINNER
He Is Not SO Much in Evidence
at the Tracks as He Used
to Be.

gone to the Stag heap said book
maker. "The Pinks took a hand in
nudging him out, but the main reason
for his disappearance was that the
followers of the game, even the casuals
and holiday visitors, became too wise
for him. When the newspapers began
to publish the racing charts virtually
every man with the horsebug took to
doping the ponies himself.
ga few, very few, of the old-time
touts dressed up, smoothed the knots
out Of their voices, slung hook shop
field glasses over their shoulders and
went to work on a new plan. You'll
see few of these leftovers around
the betting rings today. But the diked
out tout of today is pretty greasy of
speech, and he hasn't enough liberty of
movement to ena BILE him to put several
come-ons on to all the contenders in
race.
"That was the main clutch Of the old
time tout-snagging a sucker for each
and every horse in the race. I once
stood beside one of these touts when
the bunting flashed and the field got
away from the post. The tout was
stalking himself to a pocket of chewing
gum and had his back to the track.
Well, there they CO. said the gum
man to the tout.
"The tout never turned his face to the
track, but yawned sleepily, and idly
read the little motto that he pulled out
of the package of gum.
"'You don't appear to be much in
terested in this race, Jack. said the
gum man to the tout.
"'Me?' said the tout. Interested?
What f'r%
"'Well, amt " playin' none of emp
inquired the gum man.
Say, what dye t'ink I'm down here
fr-me complexion? disgustedly asked
the tout. Am I playin' any of 'em!
Wy, I'm playin' tn hull damned eigh-
teen of 'em!'
"Then, as the winning horse was
about to pop under the wire, the tout
took a swift peek at the number on the
winners saddle cloth and darted into
the stand to nail the easy mark to
whom he had given the winner for
his bit.
Occasionally, when they were hard
pressed for time, or when a race con-
tanned one or more horses that seemed
to have no mortal chance to slam into
the coin, the touts fell down in this
game. The most disgusted looking hu-
man being that ever / saw was a tout
who had slipped cog in this way.
''It was during the early days at the
Brigton Beach track, and the tout was
Bricky Condor, who made his final
cash-in years ago. Bricky was a fa-
nous redhead of the New York tracks,
and he could talk the port prop off
chink joss in something less than half
a minute when he got real busy.
"On this afternoon he, had herded
five different jells UP against five diff
ferent betting ring stanchions, and
conned each of them to put up pretty
good money on the chances Of five out
of the six horses in the second race on
the card. The sixth horse in the race
was too awful for even Bricky to try
to steer mark against, and so he neg
lected to dig for bitter on that.
"The sixth horse was 800 to 1 shot
to win, with 100 to 1 or anything else
you wanted against his place chance
but he just waited in, all the same.
Bricky was standing under the edge of
the betting ring roof, waiting for any
one Of the other five nags to stroll un-
der the tape so that he could get the
half Nelson on the man to whom he
had passed the winning tip, when the
800 to 1 crab slid out of the dust in
the stretch and simooned for the fin
ish, winning in the silliest kind Of a
scamper by five lengths
'fBricky got blue around the lips He
pulled his cap over his eyes and sat
down on the betting shed steps-the
shock Of the awful overlook was too
many for him to stand up under.
"Tm poisoned he moaned. "T' t'ink
that there's four t'ousan' fatheads on
tn groun's that could ha' pinwheeled
into takin' a wallop at that-what
die say his price was?'
""Three hundred to one" said one of
the grinners standing by, listening to
Bricky's lamentations.
"Bricky couldn't stand it. He drag
ged himself to the gate, went home
and was sick in bed for two days
1T was no Slouch of a job for the
touts of that day to keep track of the
faces of their softies. Nevertheless,
the old-fashloned tout rarely fell down
in such a feat of memory-and when
he did it didn't bother him so much
that you could notice it.
"Once I saw one of them spin down
from the grand stand steps and into the
betting shed, where he rammed. his
way up to a lamby-looking yap whom
the tout had planted against stanch-
ion before the race. The race had just
been run and the winners number was
up.
at guess I'm rotten said the tout,
enthusiastically, to the man leaning on
the stanchion. Wasn't that like tele-
phoning to Mazie?'
you're punk, all right said the
wrong man, dfSconSolately. The NUTS
running yet
"'Oh, blazes, yes!' said the tout, TAX
ing another look at the man and per-
ceiving his mistake. You've got pink
mustache, and the other gums is red.
'Scuse me. Don't take 1t to heart,
Archie, and I'll give you dead one for
the next race and he suddenly saw the
right man across the ring, darted over
there and gathered him in with repe-
tition of the gloat, easily annexing his
bit at the Oay-Off line.
"The oId-fashioned touts never ex-
pected to dance their clients more than
once, so that they didn't have to waste
any time endeavoring to bind up the
wounds of the losers. They let the
mask fall as soon as the transaction
was finished.
II once saw one Of them cordially
slapping the shoulder of a mark who
had, at the tout's dictation, put 500 on
80 to shot that traipsed in ahead Of
the bunch.
It's a sin what shine I am at this
game o. picking 'enl, amt ft?' the tout
was saying, merrily, to the holder of
the 5000 to $40 ticket. He was figuring
that his cut out of that win was going
to be about S100. I guess ought to get
thirty days for not knowing 'em better,
eh?' and he handed the grinning mark
another paste on the back of his over
coat.
"Just then the winners number was
taken down and that Of the second
horse showed to the top. The 80 to 1
hod bao,, J;o0uo1i6o1 Ioo1,,.~ n