The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-17
GOOD BETS BY MISTAKE.
How Judgment Will Sometimes
Throw Coin Away,
From the New York Sun.

into the money. The similarity in the
names of the horses caused the con-
fusion said Il bookmaker.
Even before the field went to the
post my sheet looked like a Chinese
political manifesto for about three
quarters of the bettorS on the race got
their bets down on the wrong one and
came romping back to my stool and
asked me to switch their badge num-
bers and amounts from Teepee to Tou-
pee or from, Toupee to Teepee.
when I'm on the block I'm never too
busy figuring out my percentage to
take a bet off my sheet, or transfer one,
when I'm civilly requested to. 1t took
me a long while to annex that lesson
unto myself. 1t wasn't until | had a
long line of past performances behind
me to prove it that 1 got wise to the
peculiar fact that most of the bets
people wanted to have wiped off are
winning bets.
The Sick PIunger.
IAN incident that helped to teach me
that happened when l was down in
Hot Springs one winter few years
ago. One of the plungers down there
a. the time was sick in bed and play
ing them at the rooms through a COM
missioner.
"One day he sent his commissioner
over to the big-store poolroom to get
in a New Orleans race. The commits
sioner became twisted on his way to
the poolroom and got the $4,000 down
on another horse in the same race
with a somewhat similar name, an s.
to-1 shot.
when the commissioner hustled
back to the sick room of his principal
with the ticket the plunger threw
whatever came handy at the commits
sioners' head and ordered him to romp
back to the poolroom proprietor and
request him to rectify the mistake by
taking the $4,000 off the Stool shot
and putting the coin on the other one
in the race that the plunger had doped
out to win.
THE commissioner, in a panic, skat-
ted back to the poolroom and told his
little tale of grief to the poolroom pro-
prietor. The poolroom man gave the
commissioner the gloat.
The BOOkie wouldn't.
"'Not on your gold watch and chain,
he said fatty. Each and every bet
made beneath this bamboo tree stands
as it's made. What dye think am, a
moving picture? To the firs!'
But pleaded the hard-luck COM
missioner, I'll lose my job with his
nobs if you don't make this switch for
me-
Never mind the out-in- the-snow
music on. the G string" heartlessly re-
piled the poolroom man. When dye
think l began to take money away
from myself? That 5-to-5 nursing that
your man wants to play is going to
sift in all by his little solitude. Please
g'way and let me Sleep"
1.-The commissioner didn't dare to go
back to his principals sick room and
tell him that the poolroom man had
refused to fix up the mistake, but
hung around the poolroom, gnawing his
nails until the result of the race was
called off. Then he gave a correct i'm
itation of a Castilian castanet can-can
and raced back to the sick room with
a $4,000 winnings in his Plymouth
Rocks.
The 8-to-1 thing upon which he had
put the 1900 by mistake came home in
a bored and weary jog, and the Hot
Springs players who We're next to the
inside of the incident jounced the pool
room man on the slack wire of their
kidding for the remainder of the sea-
son.
That's why He'll Switch.
81 put lot of little incidents of that
kind that came under my observation
away for future reference and 1 was
money in when l harked back to them
in actual practice as a layer myself.
When that Pass Book hog Strengthening
went through 1 saved myself the cum
min little matter of $4,000 by refrain
ing from swelling up when asked to
rub a bet off my sheet.
IT had just finished putting up the
figures on that race when an excited
little man banged his way through the
crowd around my stool, stuck a $40 bill
within a couple of inches of my nose
and yelled:
Pass Book" straightI'
"I had $50 to / chalked up against
Pass Book, so I gave the little man 49,
900 to $40 and looked upon the double
sawbuck as just about right for din
ner money and loose cigar change.
"a few minutes later l heard a great
wrangling between a man and a wom-
an somewhere behind my stool, and 1
wheeled around to see what was COM
ing off. The little man who had bet
the $40 with me on the Pass Book joke
was being backed into a stanchion on
the edge of the lawn by a big. raw
boned woman. evidently his wife.
Little Mans Plea.
"She was some several cubits taller
than he was and she looked as if she
could demolish him with both hands
tied behind her back. She was shak-
ing a long forefinger in his face and Or
dering him. under dire threats, to get
that $40 bill off Pass Book. while he
was feebly trying to convince her that
Pass Book had a chance.
Don't you dare to try to tell me
such a thing, you fat head!' she was
saying to him. The very idee of your
trying to squander our installment
money on such a sausage as Pass Book
the very ideel You go to the man
this instant and tell him that l want
that $40 put on the horse that 1 told
you to play. dye hear me?'
THE little man skunk over to my
stool.
"'Say, old man---he began, but /
cut him off.
cts all right mate I said to him.
7 heard her handling it out to you and
I'll fix you out. Give me your number
and I'll swab the bet. What's the one
she told you to play"
HE named the horse-I forget which
one of the crabs 1t was-and l had the
change made on the sheet. The little
man went away with his shoulders
hunched forward. looking blue.
Wasn't She Mad.
About four minutes later Pass Book
had trotted home I'm front of his field
and I was just $4,000 on the nice side,
because / hadn't got the weight lifter's
vest on when the little man asked me
TO change that Pass Book bet.
Il was in the same car with the lit
tie man and his raw-boned wife on the
I'm trip from the track. She was Jaw
suppose she threw at him?
Ia