Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-23
WON At LONG ODDS
A Story Of the Old st. Asaph
Race Track.
WHEN LUCK TURNED
HOW A GOVERNMENT CLERK
STARTED HOUSEKEEPING
Played a Long Line of Losers, but
johann Finally Turned
the Trick.


| early follies, and who would never be sus-
| pected now by his associates of ever hav-
| ing INDUCED in any follies.
81 am glad to hear that Stephen is beat
| ing them. He gave me my first start In
housekeeping in Washington.
when confession can be made anony-
| mously. it is good for the soul. Let me
| confess. 1 am good old man now, verg-
| ing upon forty-five, with a waistband that
| l have to let out every little while. and
demeanor of proper auSterity. But was
| In the middle of the vortex once and some
times 1 lie awake in the middle of the night
and wonder how l ever got out of 1t with
| out losing anything less important than my
pin feathers. So, smuggling behind the
screen of an inviolable anonymity, I'll tell
| You how Steve LHommedieu gave mo a
start in Housekeeping here in Washington
The narration of my youthful imbecilities
may, 1t is true, bring the blush to my al
! most middle-aged cheek, but blushing Is
| good for the circulation, they tell me.
cat that time L'Hommedeu made his
headquarters here in Washington because
| he found it warmer here during the hard
| winters than in some other places in higher
| ATTITUDES, and because too, there was
period of summer racing here. LHomme-
| dieu was only the makings of a plunger
| then. But even then he had the plungers
adamantine nerve, If he lacked the plung-
er's resources He didn't have a single,
solitary attribute of the piker, whereas
| was DoIu d plhSI
Afternoons at the Track.
II had just got into the departmental
service. and when they started to race at
| st. Asaph 1 was in the habit of taking my
annual leave in halliday sections Of after
| Moons, imbued with the nebulous idea Of
| running what is disdainfully called shoe
| makers bank roll into shoe and leather
bank. I had often met Steve LHom-
| medieu around Washington, and resumed
| my acouaintanceship with him at the st.
| Asaph track
MY government pay was pretty small
| then. My wife and I were boarding. and
by the time got through paying the board
what was left of my monthly wage was
mere metallic junk. But by the time the
st. Asaph meeting was a week old 1 was
| just $500 to the good.
Il flashed that-to me-colossal f-ndle on
| L'Hemmelieu on the in-train from the
| track.
Look what I've done to EN- I SAID
to him. And they're never going to feel
through. I'm going to start housekeeping
with this wealth.
L'Hommedieu took the roll shuff1ed 1t,
handed 1t back to me. and shook his head
discouragingly.
Isn't enough of it. he said That
| might start you to housekeeping in -Four
Forks or baskerville. but it'll never do it
| in washington. Got to buy the furniture
Sure thing l told him.
| Well said he. by the time you pay
| the hrst fnstallment on the furniture and
E'Onth's rent in advance and make tte dig
| to have the gas turned on. and cough for
the moving. and stake the larder to a bot
| tie OF queen olives and Jug of Worcester
SHIRE sauce not to mention few things to
eat. you're all in. Better nurse that roll
l along little more
Didn't Seem So Much.
| xyIa Of
rather disconnected me- The 500 did seem
| kind Of small when began looking it over
| from the point of view of his calculations.
I'm spin it along to a thousand for you
| tomorrow If you want to take a chance i,
| suggested LHommedieu. while 1 was still
| thinking about it.
-" But dye think 1t could be done? T
| asked him, heSitatingly.
" In smoke he replied, and I suc-
| cumbed to the alluring temptation
| i had all of the following day off. and
was scheduled to go downtown in the
| morning with my wife to start in picking out
| Kitchen chairs, egg-beaters, hash-choppers
| and other housekeeping bijouterie MY wife
didn't know that had all of that $500 roll.
! but 1 had given her to understand in a
! general sort OF way, couple of days be-
| fore, that had picked up enough to make
| beginning toward the housekeeping plan,
ana she was nightly pleased over the
| prospect of beginning to purchase the
| housekeeping stuff soon.
| That morning, though, 1 had to side
step the buying expedition for 1 wanted to
keep the 500 intact SOS to run it into a
| thousand, according to LHommedieu' s
| pleasant and off-hand way of putting it. MY
| wife looked me over pretty Suspiciously
| when, at noon, l edged out with the re-
| mark that was going out to get shaved
When L had made the gate 1 called back
| to her that she could expect me the next
| time she saw me, and then I bolted for it.
| l met L'Hommedieu by appointment and
| we went over to st. Asaph together
| Only Two in the Race.
"All but two of the horses were scratched
out of the first race, and the figures made
! one of them SO much better than the other
that the bookies chalked that one up at 1
| to H. and the other one at 10 to l.
| &c Put $50 on the long one L'Homme-
| dieu told me. There never were two race
horses that figured>>so far apart as that
| chalk since the world began. Anyhow, this
| is st. Asaph. in Virginia. I'm going to
| stand tap on the doZen-to-one plug, for
| there's one chance in few that the 1 TO
| Is thing will fall down or something
'And he did tap himself, as he called It,
| on the ~ to L shot in the two-horse race
saw him put his $40. all he had, down, get
| ting $3.50 to $40 ticket. No man without
the embryotic instincts of genuine plung-
| er would ever have done thing like that
with the idea Of tearing down a 1 to Is
| shot.
| when was fooling with the horses, as
I say. l was most hopeless piker and SO
! 1t grueled me to stick up $50 on 12 to 1
thing that was meeting to Is horse. But
I did 1t. all the same. because there was
| something mighty infectious in L'Homme-
| deiu's confidence In his picks.
| 1.-The result of the race showed that he
4 had been pretty close to the truth in say
| ing that no pair of horses on a race track
| were ever so far apart the betting on
| that race would seem to indicate. The 1 to
Is shot had to stick out his tongue to win
| on the wire. But that didn't bring me
| anything. LHommedieu was all in' and
| 1 was already belted for $50.
| Hard Luck.
81 took L'Hommedieu's selection for the
| next race, a to / shot, and put $50 on it,
| 1t won. but was disqualified because lead
| pad had slipped from beneath the winners
| saddle during the race, SO that the jockey,
| In weighing in. was several pounds under
| weight.
.'Steve's picks were. as they say, ham,
| mering at the door for the remainder of
| the afternoon, at all kinds of prices. but
| they didn't quite connect. The one he liked
/ for the third race was at 100. so and 20,