The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-07-17
NEW YORK TOPICS
Gossip and Current Comment from the Metropolis

much about the betting over the NOM
ination. 1t was very brisk before the
convention, especially in the middle
of the spring.
circle which may be termed the gem
tleman- politicians election betting
coterles, for lack of better title, are
aware that a good deal of money has
changed hands in New York this week
as a result of this ante-convention
| betting. Curiously enough, as it now
seems, good deal of the money
! that was risked and lost in this way
was put up on Grover Cleveland. Gu
riously enough, too, those who bet
on the former Presidents nomination
were, nearly all of them, men of sup
posedly great political shrewdness.
Some of the men making up the
little informal coterie mentioned are
| of Republican proclivities, some of
! Democratic tendencies, though very
few can be said to belong to either
of the great parties, simply because
they never vote.
This abstention from the exercise of
the suffrage arises from the fact that
the law doesn't allow one who bets
on the election to vote, and these
men have a perfect passion for betting
on the outcome of political events of
! all sorts. A few of them have been
! election gamblers from their majority
/ up, and have never voted in their
/ lives. One of them, who won a small
/ fortune betting on Cleveland in 1892,
/ and has been on the right side Of the
| political gamblers fence oftener than
not ever since, put up a pretty big
! sum early in May of this year on
! Cleveland's nomination, and now
spends his time wondering why he
didn't win. He is the subject of much
raillery on the part of his friends,
who agree unanimously in failing to
see how he ever could have expected
Cleveland's nomination this year.
Speaking of Cleveland brings Hill
to mind again.
The political friendship between
Hill and August Belmont, without
which Judge Parker could hardly
nee, isn't a new thing by any means.
am not well enough posted on Mr..
Belmont's political history to say when
the friendship of the two men began,
but il was a well recognized fact years
and years ago. Only a few months
before the election of 1896. while
Cleveland was still President and after
he and Hill had been at loggerheads
for two-thirdS of a decade. Cleveland
wanted Hills support in the Senate,
OF which the latter was then a mem
Der. In order to let Hill understand
what was wanted a dinner at the
White House was planned, and Hill
was invited. Hill couldn't go at first
but when Belmont asked him to he
consented, and, what is more. took
upon himself in the Senate the burden
of supporting the President exactly
as the latter wished him to.
George Raines of Rochester, N. Y,
whose voice was heard occasionally
in the st. Louis convention, is well
known in this town, and more than
once his friends here have wondered
why he remains I'm the city which
stands on the brink of the Genesee
Falls since over and over again he has
had exceptionally advantageous oppor-
tunities to come to New York.
These opportunities have arisen
mostly through the influence Of Tam
many, II is said. George RRines Is a
brother to John Raines (unlike George,
a Republican, and famous as the author
Of the Raines Liquor Law) and is
considered by many who know the
four "Raines boys" best as by far
the most accomplished orator OF the
! entire family. With George Raines as
a New Yorker and aniliated with