The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-12
WOMEN VICTIMS OF RAGING
FASCINATED BY THE SPORT TO
 THEIR LASTING IyJURF.
some of Them Follow .hs Game suu,- mer aud wtu.er-A wOmaa Whose Hu.bsud's Fortune I. Gons-AnoihsE Woman Whose Laek Never Turns.


 Woman Whose Luck Never Turns.
 A man who recently returned from the New Orleans races was speaking the other evening Of the vicissitudes Of the men and women, particularly the latter, who follow the horses all the year round as a means of livlihood- If you have visited Sheepshead Bay, Morris Park, Gravesend or any of the New York tracks in summer" said he, and should you visit New Orleans or San Francisco in the winter you would see many familiar faces. In the crowd which daily gathers in an attempt to beat the game you would be surprised to see the same old regulars, men and women, who have been patrons of the local tracks for years.
 One day at Jamaica last fall 1 saw a quiet, neatly dressed woman in the grand stand who was betting heavily on each race She had hard luck in the first three events, but she picked Silver Dream to win the fourth and bet $500 on the lilly at Il to 5.
 When Silver Dream came home on the bit the woman never turned hair. Her commissioner brought back $1,00O, and she gave him $50 for his trouble. Then she bet $1,000 on q horse in the last race and lost the bet by a nose.
 "She seemed so completely out of place among the women regulars that I became interested. After the races she went into the parlor car and looked over a newspaper containing the next days entries.
 We struck up a conversation and she l told me that she had become a slave to the horse racing game that she was a widow, and that at her husbands death she had inherited large for tune.
 With plenty of time on her hands she had been induced to go to the races one day, and the excitement of it all had proved so fascinating that she could not get over it. She was drawn to the track after that as by magnetic power, and in the course of time she was heavy loser.
 'In spite of the warning of friends she kept at it until the day We talked together, she declared, and she had only few thousand left. I did not wholl5 believe her story, and when we parted at Long Island City, I was in- i''Silned to laugh to myself At New Orleans about a month ago I was walking through the grand stand, when suddenly this same woman con- fronted me. She did not recognize me and I had a chance to look her over carefully.
 She seemed to have aged ten years. Her clothes were still neat, but her hair was prenaturely gray and the lines on her face denoted worry and i care.
 ! "Sl1e was lingering dope book and counting over a few erumpled bills which commissioner had just handed to her. As I spoke to her she looked up i in smazement. Then she was clearly embarrassed the color mounting to her cheeks.
 You see. I cannot keep away, she remarked with faint siriife. I could not remain in New York. I wish had. "' I've had a terrible run of luck ever since I came here. Did I come alone? Why, of course. Who would harm me?
 "' From the very first it seemed as if I fate was against me. I could not cash a bet and soon all of my money was gone. Then my jewelry went, but the ill luck continued.
 | Will it ever change? All I want to do now is to win enough money to pay my bills here and get back to New York, where know I shall have bet ter fortune on the big tracks there.
 Yes, I'll admit that the horses have ruined me financially, but shall never give up trying to get back what I've l lost
 ''The next day the woman had q phe- nominal run of luck She ran a ten dol lar bill up to $1,30O on the first four races, and had sense enough to quit. The following day she plunged and won l $z, 700 more.
 ''Her winnings on the third day amounted to s6000 gross and she was the picture of confidence. Yet with this success she remained the same quiet, neat woman whom I had first met at Jamaica. No wine drinking, or tassociating with other women, no f1ashy men friends and no dazzling jewelry.
 "She came to the track the fourth day and began to lose, but she kept her nerve, even when she played a to 5 favorite with $2,500, and lost by an eye lash. I tried to dissuade her from fur ther speculation, but she cut me off politely with the remark: DO not worry about me, sir, I have bought my transportation to New York. have paid all my bills and have settled with the hotel in advance, up to the close of the meeting, so that am pro- tected.
 Shall I come here next winter? If not, I shall go to California, for I have never been there. They say it is a beautiful country, and that it is luckier than New Orleans!'
 This woman is not the only one at the Crescent City whose face would be familiar to New York racegoers. There is small regiment of such women ! there.
 | "One in particular. who always fol- l lows the stable of a well-known politi- elan, is there in all her glory. She seems to have had wonderful luck, and lives in splendor at one of the leading | hotels.
 "She got the tip at the very begin- ming of the meeting to play the horses ridden by H. Phillips, the boy who will 1 ride for Thomas and Shields this vear