The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-07-28
HE TOUTgD THE YOUYS,
THE GREEN CHAP FROM PITTS BURG KNEW 4 THING OR TWO

Ancestor was a Good ThIng-Grafters
 Didn't Know 1t, However, Until They
 Were Hurried in With Their Coin and
 Made Their Pile.
 A solid Pittsburg man, wholesale hardware merchant, who. with his smooth-shayen upper lip, chin beard and baggy clothes. looks more like a prosperous farmer than a born and reared city man and store proprietor, halted at the outer boardwalk rail the other afternoon to watch the antics of g school of porpoises near the end of one of the piers, says an Atlantic City correspondent of the New York Sun.
 couple of hawk-eyed sure-thing men from New York-Atlantic City is full of them since the poolroom game frightened up the main town-spotted him. The Pittsburg man out of the tail of his eye saw that they had spotted him.
 Look like they might be able to ge the distance, eh?" affably remarked one of the sure-thing men to the Pitts burg hardware merchant, nodding in the direction of the Ieaping porpoises.
 The Pittsburg man permitted the air of rusticity that enwrapped him to thicken. He allowed that the porpoises appeared to be right smart travellers.
 Thus the talk was started. The pair Of cinch men became very busy with the Pittsburg citizen. He on his part was curious to find out what their deadfall was.
 He found out when he accepted their invitation to join them in drink. They had the drink in hotel cafe, the walls of which were filtered with color prints portraying famous race horses of the past.
 sEver play 'em?" the more talkative Of the pair of sure-thing men asked the Pittsburg man, pointing to the pictures of the thoroughbreds.
 The hardware man allowed that there were some right smart steppers to sulky out his way.
 "Oh. the trots!' said the talkative one, disparagingly. "Trotting isn't racing. mean the runners"
 Nope, the Pittsburg man didn't know much about them kind of horses.
 Well, us two are from up New York way" said the more garrulous one, land what we're going to do to the pooIroom down here in Atlantic City tomorrow will be a disgrace to civili- kation."
 The Pittsburg man reckoned that they must be pretty good pool players if they expected to win so easy as all that come to.
 By this time the pair of cheerful. workers looked as if they felt that 1t was going to be shame to take the money At nod from the loquacious one, his pal went away on the plea of an engagement with his Boardwalk broker, and then the other grafter herded the willing Pittsburger into an alcove and explained the whole thing to him. itls The horses name was Ancestor, he said, and he was to go in sprint race at Sheepshead on the following day. The cinch man had furtively cast his eye down the entry list in the afternoon paper he carried and had lit upon An cestor as the least likely horse to win during the whole afternoon of racing on the next day. So he made it Ancestor. The grafter suggested that the Pitts burger should bet couple of hundred dollars on the race and went through the usual performances resorted to by such grafters to convince their victims that they have a sure thing,
 The Pittsburger agreed with the grafter that it looked like powerful easy way of making some money. He'd think 1t over he said. He gave the grafter his name and the name of the hotel at which he was stopping the best in Atlantic City and invited him to call there shortly after noon on the following day
 The grafter, convinced that there was little easy money in sight, with per haps plenty more to follow allowed the Pittsburg man to go warning him with great solennity, however, not to say word to anybody about that Ancestor fran1e-up.
 When the amused hardware man re- turned to his hotel he found in his box 8 special delivery letter from a very ass tute horseman friend of his, operating on the Eastern tracks. His amazement over the coincidence was profound when he found that the letter concerned the chances of a horse named Ancestor to win his race on the following day. The writer of the letter expressed the opinion that Ancestor would prove to be good thing at long price, and he recommended the Pittsburg man to take little shot at it.
 The Pittsburg man marveled that he should be advised by trusted friend to play the same horse picked out by al pair of men whom he knew to be graf tefs pure and simple. He knew that the grafters had only lit upon Ances- tors name by mere chance, however.
 He immediately wired to his New York racing friend:
 s.Get two hundred dollars on Ances- tor for me at opening odds. Will be at room down town here when race is run Wire me there what price you get if the thing wins"
 The two grafters were at the Pitts burg mans hotel at the appointed hour on the following day. The hardware man immediately took them aside and told them that he reckoned he'd go in. with them. Where was the place the bet was to be made? He'd go along ALA. @I.a SI % .ys 4 '. <