Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-13
WHEN ONE UNDERTAKES TO
DO ANOTHER MANS GANIBI ING


Two days before the recent Brighton
meeting came to a close long string OF
trolley cars bound for the track ana nlied
TO overlooking with men wild to reach the
track for the first race came to grinding
halt with about mile and haii yet 10
go. The power had temporarily given out.
The halt happened about a quarter OF an
hour before post time for the first race.
Well they're all NUTS in the first race.
observed a fat man in the leader of the
stranded trolley cars, and we'll all be
dough In hand by missing 1t.
That's all right, too" put in a worried
looking man who sat huddled up in rear
seat but all the same. I'd like to have a
few of you fellows give me your names and
addresses" and he nervousIy pulled out a
notebook and pencil.
The men In the same seat With the wor-
rled-looking chap regarded him with curl
osity. but said nothing.
Nope" said the man with the notebook
and pencil, his face wearing a wan and
frozen grin, I'm not a bug. Neither am 1
sleuthing for evidence against the bookies
You won't be standing for any pinch by
giving me your names and addresses, be-
Iieve me- But It's this way: I've got
another mans money In my clothes to bet
on the first race. He's a pretty nifty broker
in town, and he couldn't make the track
today, he usually does, because hes
got a deal on.
This morning somebody handed him this
King Pepper plug. couple of hours ago
he slipped me a century note ana toio i,e
to spraddle the hundred bones across tna
board on King Pepper l wouldn't give W
cents for King Pepper myself me may
cop at that And, of course, there not
a chance in the world for me to make the
track in time for the first race SO want
TO be protected. I've been there before. rms
broker man is pretty good friend OF nine,
and he's got no reason to suppose 'hat l ia
Highlander or a second-story man. hu.
this Is racing business, and that makes II
different The most of us nd suspect
Father Kelly if we gave him a racing com
mission to perform and, after the thing
had hoped through. he came back to us
with drawn mouth and story o. now
he failed to get the cush down. guess
you ducks understand.
They did understand. They were all smil-
ing reninscently before he had finished
his explanat ton, and the four of them In
his seat willingly gave him their names and
addresses which he wrote in his note book
with considerable care.
The outcome proved his wisdom. The
leading trolley car didn't make the track
until after the first race had been decided.
The winner was King Pepper. with 10 to /
against his chances. The brokers' delayed
commissioner had two of the whose
names he had taken the car-one of
whom happened to be a well-knoWn racing
man-at the brokers' office on the foiIoW-
Ing morning,
raturedIy when his friend turned up with
the two witnesses to his delay IN reaching
the track Not at all necessary
''Uh-huh-it may he tommyrot. all right,
was the brokers' friends reply. but. all the
same old man. l feel a whole few better
that the situation is framed up just as II
is"
well that fellow had his head on
straight. all square enough remarked the
racing man on coming away from the
brokers' office. But he made his mistake
In accepting his friends betting money IN
the first place. No real wise cove is wiling
in these DAYS To take upon himself the re-
sponsihility Of attending to another man
gambling. I've been so badly jolted al that
sort of thing that now L wOuldn place
50 bet on a dead sure thing leo to l shot,
for my best pal If he was laid up in hos
pitai with a fractured leg
My former cigar man will never get over
believing that / m fink and bullet-heao.
One day during the Jamaica spring meeting
last year I pulled my gasoline glug-cart up
In front of his shop to STAKE myself to some
smokes. He brought my box OF cigars out
10 the pufr-wagon. and after I'd stuffed my
pockets he handed me his picks for the SIX
races. scrawled on a bit Of paper. and a
ten-case note. He wanted me to parlay the
X-paper on his six selections.
.1 told him that he must mean Bud and
not me- and l leaned back IN the hiss
drosky and spent about ten minutes in ex-
planning 10 him why I'd cut out frivoling
with other peoples money at race tracks.
He said that l was his only chance-that he
didn't know of anybody else going out TO
IDYttI ha1 n
myself up TO my full-seated height, all the
same.
"Au OF those six picks of his won, some
of them at any old odds. He got busy with
pencil and pad that evening after he'd
seen the results, and figured ii out that my
refusal 10 take his sawbuck and bet it for
him had cost him round two million dol
lars and some odd cents.
Il saw that he regarded me as shine.
and that there was no way or squaring IL
with him and so | had to hunt a new to-
bacconist He wasn't even civil to me after
I'd lost him all of those millions. So that,
If you've got friends thoughtless enough TO
ask you 10 do their horse betting for them.
you're liable to get it coming and going.
"A friend OF mine. an old-timer at the
game. was driving his fast PAGER out from
Chicago to the old Reby track a few years
ago He had in his kick $1,000 note which
chum of his, big expressman in Chi
cago. had passed TO him 70 bet on old
Kriss kringle in the first race.
when he was half way to the old Roby
track his PAGER got away from him in a shy
at buzz buggy. took the iron In his mo-
lars and went over the prairie in a 2.oO
fiat scamper or something pretty close to
It. My friend was tossed into some scrub
brush near the road, and the horse went on
until the trap turned over. when he
pulled up.
MY friend picked himself up and caught
the horse. The trap was a wreck He let
Il lie and took the horse half mile up the
road to d road house barn.
He was fooling around the back yard OF
the road house. after seeing to the horse
care when he backed into an uncovered
cisteru that was being dug. 1t was a neat
back fall of about ten feet, but he lit SOFT
like on bss shoulders. half In mud and half
In yellow water.
Nj OF this portends. think he coolly
called out to the excited road house pro-
prietor who hoped around the edge OF
the cistern that Kriss Kringle is going to