The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-05
GOOD FABLES OF THE TURF.
NINEHORsE COMBINATION PAID S1a,soo TO SIS
THE FRESH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
GIRL COPPERED PLAYS.

poolroom to get a wager down at the
| house price, or morning betting-tfat
IS, the price put up by the poolroom peo-
pie before the regular betting came in
| from the track
| He bet SIoo on a two-horse coTnbina-
ton that he liked, and | asked him to
| explain the meaning of a combination to
| me. Then | picked up list of the en-
tries at three or four race tracks that
| day. | picked out nine horses whose
! names impressed me favorably, and jot-
ted them down on a slip of paper.
:" / think I'll make a combination my
self, | said to my friend, showing him
! the list. What price will | get against
theSe?
My friend smiled
You're not going to play nine of EN-
to VIM he said to me.
Why not?' | asked him. They've
| got chance to win, haven't they?'
Oh, one or two of EN-, maybe said
| he. But nine 2
: How do 1 get the combinations I
| asked him.
Just you walk up to the window he
said to me, pointing to a little orifce
like the window of box Office, and
show the man behind your list. He'll
tell you the price against the combina-
ton
Il went solemnly over to the window
my. friend indicated and laid the list
had made down before him.
How much does that pay for dol
larP ! asked him
He picked up the list of nine horses
with an expression of astonishnent,
which quickly changed to amusement,
and showed it to chap standing along
side him
~'Want to kill 'ern good, hey2' said
the combination ticket writer. Well,
I'll make it $500 to I, seeing it's you
Give me S. worth of it, then, said
I, and | slipped in my S..
He scrawled the names of the horses
on the brown ticket and wrote $I2,5oo TO
S. at the bottom of it. and | stuffed it
into my pocket, after showing it to my
amused friend
1T was then about II o'clock in the
morning, and, as | had been up pretty
late the night before-hadn't been in bed
at all, in fact-I went to my room and
turned in for a dose.
4 was pounding my ear in great
shape when the telephone bell in my
room woke me up with a bang, and as
| jumped UP to answer the call [ saw by
my watch that it was after 4 o'clock in
other end of the telephone, and he was
in the poolroom where l had made my
$I2.soo to S. combination bet.
Say, you lucky bullhead,' he shout
ed at me, dye know that seven of those
internal crabs on your ticket have won?
Come on down here instantly, and be in
at the death. Looks like you're going to
get action on that idiotic piece of paste
board. The eighth horse on your ticket
has come in a I to 4 favorite.' /
Il scrambled into my clothes and got !
into the poolroom just as the result of
that eighth race on my ticket was being
called off. The horse whose name ap-
peared on my ticket had won in canter
by IS lengths.
'Sh-sh-sh! said my friend to me.
Not wordt These poolroom ducks will
be hunting you up IN a minute to buy
that ticket from you at discount. Per-
haps they'll give you $4,000 for it-they
ought to. anyhow, seeing that your last
horse is just now being put up on the
board as a 3 to favorite.'
He hadn't finished speaking before
there was another flash on the favorite
who wound up my gorgeous-looking
ticket, and the horse was marked up at
to 8.
We'll, we waited for the poolroom
folks to begin to curl up with nervous
ness and to crawl out from behind the
counter with ten $1,000 bills in their
mitts But they didn't. [ could have
laid off thousands of dollars of the
ticket among the players in the room at
to or 3 to 5, but my friend decided,
md | agreed with him, that 1t nd be a
whole lot better to force the poolroom
olks to come to the front with a big
,ffer for the cardboard IN bulk.
Five minutes before the horses were
lue to go to the post, the operator called
Tut:
Scratch Hot Stuff. Twenty minutes :
.llowed for a new book
"Hot Stuff was the favorite and the !
lorse that might have wound up my win !
ing ticket Combination tickets, you .
now, call for all OF the horses named
N them to go and if one of them is
cratched, the whole ticket is valueless, 8
ven il all the others have won. That's a..
What they call pay or play At that
inc it was permissible for an owner
nth fair reason TO scratch his horse
ut of race right up to post time.
1T wasn't until quite a number of
ears afterward that l found out why
nat horse had been scratched just when
looked like he was due to go out and
Itch me home SI2,oOo. ne poolIooIii
eople who had written my ticket had
OF the horse scratched. They had SIM
w wired the owner that they'd give him
le purse. about $500, and $500. to boot,
he'd scratch his horse out of the race. $
nd. of course, with that kind OF G
nch, the owner had pulled his horse out a
T the race and busted my ticket. It b
as a good deal cheaper for the pool
pom people, too, than trying to make
dicker with me for the purchase OF my 4
9 ticket on the basis of thousands. The
orse that had been scratched out and
lrnt up my ticket ran the next day, and
at a better field by 20 lengths. But
lat didn't bring me nothin', as the
,wsboy said and. somehow or other,
ye never haa much confidence in these
icv-looking seven-eighths-won com
nation tickets on the ponies since.
la4+A TO