Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-28
NO NAN ) is IMMUNE

In all this talk now going on through
out the country about the evil results that
inevitably fall upon and crush the victim OF
the pony-playing habit" said one OF the
Chicago correspondents, 1.-THE assumption
seems to be that the young fellows only are
the sufferers through the maintenance OF
the big horseeracinH game in this country.
This Is the NEST tn4kact assumption mag
Unable. The horse bug grips men at all
stages Of iifS and. from observation OF
number OF cases. I am inclined to believe
that when Intakes hold of man whose
youth is past such man will go In for
the shriveling thing more desperately than
the young fesow who takes an early start
at It.
Take the case of old Pat Lacy OF Chi
cago. Pat was an old fashioned. rough
necked harp and he kept mighty pront-
able iongshorenien's groggery on river
street, in Chicago He had no-gooo son
who piked along with the horses ana never
worked, and one day Pat threw him INTO
the outer air and told him to stay away;
THE old man had no sooner Done tnis
than he became sore on himself ana, urGeu
on by the boy s another, he made up ms
mind to give the young fellow another SNOW
for his shiny marble. He knew tnat ms sp ~
could be found at the washington 1aiN
track. where the racing was then on-,n 70
was five or six years ago-ano SO ne uiA 10
himself out in his broadcioth clotnes " t ..e
centennial vintage, and went out 70 the
track to hunt the boy up =, -.
HE had never seen a race tracA AZ I
life before-except the outside OF one-pue
he had q whole lot of dormant sportins
blood, and the running thing maoe q NJ
with him from the COON. ne VuI 10
son. made 1t up with him anu s.at ~ ~, - t,,o
making some inquiries about Tue "A' .-0
races were run. ,+art
"The boy knew it all, of course. ana stara,
ed in to nut the old gentleman Wise.
touted his dad onto a 30 to snot IA eno
third race, and the old man shreuoeo q AZ. az.
spot from his roll and sent II alohs oi .A'
Youngsters selection The horse won.
.aThat came pretty near driving rat OaSn
IN the nick that he had dropped years pe-
fore, that $500 win. He sent the none non,
along for the remainder OF 'ne ,,;nd-
on his tough sons picks, and AZ sne VIM NJ
I'D Of the day he was nearly sl"V 70 nS
rood. He took the boy home with MN an, anu
they spent half the night over Inc oope
charts. xyant
toeether the next day, and Pat won tldiiy
again. From that time on Pats neao n os,o
keep began to gorge on the Dig graf -,
old man got too busy for the saloon nu s.,,
ness. He became thicker tnan .niesee .,r,,,r.
the youngster whom he had given the swIi,
toss for fooling with the gee-gees, anu
snent his afternoons at the tracks around
Chicago. ,o,,,,a
into a sandbar. The So 900 that had Simply
drifted into his clothes during the TWO
months began to drift out again, anu III ~
side of a month he was not only an OF .ne
winnings to the worse. but ne was o""
ing checks on his savings BANK
'sRut there wasn't any quit In Pat. ~
had the instinct that the time TO peel tne
coat and get into the shirt sleeves Is wnen
the rough-house Is under . Way s;c, ant ~ the
though he was getting mighty sich VI 'h0
,,nb;1f mo he trudged along.
ale had Sc 900 IN the savings BANK. ana
that went Then he was all IN, except Ine
saloon He tackled bis wife on me pr, Prod -
osItion of putting herI name alongside MS 70
a mortgage of 5000 on the saloon prop
erty. and she came so close TO pattiis
pats head off, that there wasn't any run IN
II. But the Sight of her mans nead IN
S Sansa the mortgage was fixed up and her
name on it. The 5000 was paid over 70
Pat. and he went out to the track with Tue
whole bundleti' an -.
looked like the,fag end of Swede riot, but
there weren't any bandages on ms nerve.
He was out at Washington Park 70 get
back the $4,000 savings that he mad iost'
and he wasn't out there to do any piking,
either.
'sThe horse TAlgol. a Chicago craeker1ack
at that time, Yves carded for the nrst race,
and Pat announced TO his son who was
going on Aigol straigft. The son tried to
nick a fieht with him 80 that they would
both be arrested sbeforef.the race The son
couldn't see Algol win; and he Thought
that the old man was twirly, anyhow, FOR
wanting to soak the mortgage price OF one
of the best waterfront saloons In Chicago
on the outcome of one. race Maybe the
son was right but that's not the end OF
the story I'm taking. The son didn't get
away with his attempt to mix his dad up IN
a mussy scene, and the old man pioughed
down to the ring with his 5000 and scat
tered It around on Algol at to 1, a 81 600
bill at a clip with the different books.
"When he got through that round Algoi
was at 8 to 5. and the holiday people, think
ing that the plungers in the know had bat
tered the price, went to the Algol horse
for tens of thousands. They had no means
of knowing that the cutting Of the to I
price had been caused by the old harp In
the broadcl0th clothes and the bandaged
head, who was due to hustle for q job on
the drainage canal II Algol didn't happen
to feel like running that afternoon. The
old man didn't get all OF his down at to
/, but pretty near, II, and when he trudged
to the grand stand to watch the race he
stood to win something like $4,000
"Algol came home on the chn-strap, and
Pat collected. Then he went outside the
track, shook his fist at the Washington
Park buildings. hoped a street car for his
groggery, took of his coat and began to
tend bar and he has never seen the inside
of race track from that day to this. He
quit $4,000 or so to the good. but he had
got his and he couldn't see any more of 1t.
And the case of Pat Is only one. I've
known a whole lot OF other elderly men.
and some of them Of far superior intellect
to Pats, who got the racing fever late in
life and permitted the insdious thing to
carry them over the brink of the abyss
Examination of the horse racing game until
the pansies are growing over him."