Evening star., 1903-08-01
HIS WINNING SYSTEM

Down on the Atlantic City boardwalk. in
charge of one of'the Saratoga water booths.
there is a young dope-sheet student who is
erea tly cherished by those of his acquaint-
ances who have the horse-bettfn bug. said
the man with the sun-striped. cerise-colored
nose They have fallen into the habit OF
sitting at his feet. Is it were. for sus-
gestions to winners. and he gives them
the winners with singular. not to say amaz-
ing, consistency and consecutivity.
His system is complicated SO far as his
own playing of the horses Is concerned. but
It's almost foohshly easy for his friends
They simply copper his picks. ana get the
money.
who Is the manager of the Saratoga water
plant. isn't on night duty. But he doesn't I
spend his off hours in traipseing up and
down the board walk piping Off the dolls,
as the chaste Atlantic City phrase expresses
1t. He performs his hardest work after he
turns the Saratoga water outfit over to his
assistants. He gets the entries for tomor-
row along toward O'Clock In the evening.
and Immediately after the evening meal.
instead of indulg,n& In the frivolous hike
to the boardwalk he repairs to his room.
strips to the very finality of neglige. and
works like hired man sometimes until
midnight, doping the horses scheduled to
run on the various tracks on the following
day. He's got the dope books Tor all the
tracks. bethumbed and dog-eared running
back to the epoch when Hickory Jim was
elimination. Supposing there are dozen
horses In race. He dopes the entire
bunch. taking into consideration. after the
FOND method Of the dope artists. weights.
jockeys, time, track conditions, going
back and coming to hand form-the whole
WORKS. BY this method he at length. after
tremendous tuggfng at his locks and un-
precedented perspirings. reduces the field
OF dozen horses to Just two contenders.
or these two to which he reduces the field
one Is generally, according to his calcula-
tions. just a teenchy leetle shade the better
OF the other one, but he always writes
down the names of the two contenders In
the race in case Of scratches. His industry
at the doping work is enormous. his self
renunciation colossal It takes a whole lot
or enthusiasm. not to say pin-headedness
to SIT In hot Atlantic City back room
with the gas fartng. for six hours. doping
the chances of the ponies. when the bands
are ump-ta-ra-ring down on the piers, the
merry y-go-rounds rag-timing the Intermex-
20 and the Pilgrims Chorus from Tam
hauser. the cake walkers prancin9 and the
hip-the-hap tapping.
In the morning. when he opens up HIS
board walk Saratoga water plant long be-
fore the breakfast hour. he finds his clients
waiting for him. They repair to the board
walk booth for the double purpose Of getting
Saratoga waterfall you wish to drink for
cents--and obtaining the results of the
young mans doping He always has his
results neatly written out in pencil on a.
piece of paper.
What are the names OF the two that
figure to COP the fourth race at Chicago?'
the bunch inquire OF the linen-coated young
man who fills their Saratoga water glasses
for them.
Lobster and Land Crab the young
man In charge OF the booth replies with
his confident I-have-spoke manner.
Lobster and Land Crab. hey? the gang
D1lIS hinh Of tbn
going to play?'
Land Crab replies the young man with
the vast assortment OF dope books. Land
Crab figures mite the best
you're going to play Land Crab for a
dead sure thing then. hey? they repeat to
make sure.
Uh-huh-I like Land Crab is the dope
students reply.
toga water In chorus. Immediately getting
busy with their pencils and note books
Well play Lobster
THE system has been found by slathers
OF the followers Of the Saratoga water dope
artist to be all but infallible. All they've
got to do. in about four cases out of five.
Is to get their money down on the one OF
the two horses that the dope boy isn't go
ing to play himself and the moneys theirs.
The hope boy sends his money to the pool
rooms on the one he likes. and scarcely
ever wins-he's IN trouble to seize out the
price of laundry work all the time. The fell
lows VINO SIT at MS 1eet 1Or UPS copper his
selections by playing the other one-the one
he doesn't 'like'-and they're walIowing in
wealth. The dope scholar is fully aware Of
the way they work 1t. and is given constant
flashes at the big rolls Of money they win
just by 'coppering' his picks. but his infat-
uation for his own figures. like that of all
of the confirmed dope people is such that
he is in the final stage of bustedness nearly
all the time.
The young man. despite his constant los
ing out. Is so In love with his process-of-
elimination doping labors that he willingly
let's the patrons of his booth have the re-
suits of his figurings without exacting any
sort OF return from them. So that 1t has
got that almost mob of horsy boys as
semble around the Saratoga water booth
every morning before breakfast just for the
purpose of finding out what horses in the
various races the young man in charge
doesn't like that they can get their
dough down on the unliked horses in the
afternoon.
There seems to be way whereby they
can lose II they stick to him. week ago
last Wednesday big gang of the dope stu
dents 'cOpperers assembled at the booth
before breakfast. They didn't know that
the great match race between McChesney
and WaterbOy had been declared off on the
evening before. SO they wanted to find out
which Of the two equine champions re-
spectively of the east and west the Sara
toga water young man liked so that they
could play the other one. OF course, he had
1t all pat
Play the short-priced horse was his
advice. It'll probably be Waterboy.
There's no sense in playing the long shot In
match race like this-nO sense in long
shots anyhow. Long shots never win when
fellows got his money EN-
"A newsbOy came yelling along just then.
and they all found out that the big match
race had been declared Off. So they took
his picks on the other races and went
their way. About a dozen jolly Elks over
flowed from the big Baltimore convention,
were among those who carefully took note
of the dope students pick, in order to
copper them later in the day-they had
been put next to the protita bleness of the
system.
THE usual gang of clients of the Sara
tcga water dope artist were on hand in At
lantic City's largest pool room that after
noon. and. usual. they did pretty we'll
in the way Of getting the money by play
ing the other horse-the one OF the two
that their instructor didn't Hike
Then came the Montauk stakes at
Brighton Beach. A lot OF them observed
that there was a colt named Long Shot
in that event. They grinned and put their
heads together.
Our dope boy they said to each other,
remarked this morning that long shots
never win. didn't he? Uh-huh Well here's
one named Long Shot. and he's Is to I.
Wa' fo kao rfchf