Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-28

to the layer and name their selection that
closes the transaction. If they were not
suddenly pulled up with round turn by
the bookmaker's sharp query, Number?
most of them would romp off into the ring
without giving the sheet writer the slight
est clue to the identity of their bet, and
then feel aggrieved for the remainder of
the afternoon If the bet won and they found
themselves unable to collect it.
After the days races over, the sheet
writer and the cashier get together and
strike their balances. Once in a while in
doing this they run into snags that keep
them busy far into the night but this sort
of thing does not often occur with steady
thoroughly trained crews proficient in what
is known as team work.
The cashiers job. while less eXacting in
many more details than that of the
sheet writer is one which requires patience,
quickness of vision and a perfect mastery
of the art of handling and changing money.
The work would be vastly SlnpIhcd, as q
matter of course. if he were not required TO
do two different things at one and the
same time. But he is.
He is required to receive the money com
ing in from the hookmaker and make
change for the new bets. and to pay off
the winning line at the same time. OF late
years number of the bookmakers have
amplifed their crews by engaging an as
slStant cashier who is the 'pay-off' man
the man, that is to say, who hands out to
the winners the amounts of their bets while
the cashier is attending solely to the reccp-
ton of money from the hands of his
employer and making change. But the as
sistant cashier who does the paying off is
luxury enjoyed by only a minority OF the
bOokmakers yet so that most OF the cash
ierS are still acting both receiving and
paying tellers during the afternoons rae
ing.
ITO see a bookmaker's cashier thus cram
ming money into the satchel suspended by
a strap around his neck and open in front
of him at his waist line, and pulling money
p11f of no tph n at hR lT1p irla
is to study the performance of a man whose
hands are nicely adjusted to the dictation
of his head. The money goes into his
satchel in a disardered mass. like so much
material for rag carpet, and it comes out
in much the same fashion, so that the deft-
ness with which the cashier reduces the
confusion of lucre In his satchel to order,
separating the yellow bills from the green
ones with the merest movements of the
fingers of one hand, is remarkable.
While the cashier is doing this his ears
are open at both ends, so to speak. In the
first place he is listening to what the book
maker has to say. The bOOkmaker passes
him over a ftfty-dollar bill. saying fifteen
change, at the same moment that the next
man in the pay-off line is announcing the
number of his badge and naming the amount
coming to him.
In addition to handling the money com
ing and going. and to listening to the fig
urcs submitted by two persons at the same
time. the cashier has to make penciled
IIIS on the lttN-bll Siitcl dIOulu the amount
of each paid-off bet as he hands the
winning wager out to its collector. so that
the bookmakers cashier comes pretty close
to being a several times buster man than
he who used to take the money from the
rear end of the old-time circus ticket wa
gon.
Very few of the bookmakers' cashiers
are bonded men, and yet there are few
cases on record of boOkmakers cashiers
having proven dishonest. They belong to
the vast fraternity of sports which. their
employers consider. is actually bond enough,
for the bOokmakers' cashiers know that
if they were ever caught with the goods
TO the extent Of a single dishonest dollar
of their employers money they would be
barred from every race track in the world
for the remainder of their lives; and no
layers cashier could contemplate such a
possibility without shUdGering.
Most of the bookmakers employ but one
wardman, although the big stores have
two ana sometimes three members of
their crews. Even the casual visitor at the
race track knows the wardman-knOws his
elbOwing, plunging, jostlng, catapultic way
of getting through the ring crowd even on
the biggest days.
The outside man is, naturally enough,
accounted a nuisance by the racegOng pub
along without regard to the toes or the ribs
of anybody ne may encounter, but he is a
necessary nuisance, to the bookmaker at
any rate. In these days, when the prices
made by the bookmakers, but are virtually
dictated by one or two big members of the
ring the outside man is an absolutely in
diSpensabl1 member of the crew.
If these We're no outside man there would
be no prices. When one of the big book
makers chalks up the prices against the
horses in race on his slate all of the out
side men are already surrounding him, and
one of them calls off the figures to his
mates, who jot them down on their pro-
grams Then they all separate in one ire
mendous rush TO give the quoted prices TO
their employers.
There is no chance for them to be dainty
in the picking of their way toward their
principals stools 1t is their job to get the
figures to their employers within something
less than half a minute after they are an
nounced, so that the taking in of money on
the race may begin, and they know what
is likely to happen TO them if they linger.
once the outside man has given his prin-
cipal the initial prices, it is his business to
hustle through the ring, especially around
the stools of the big layers, to watch the
shifting of the odds, and to make constant
reports of these variations TO his principal
He has also TO keep his eye upon the big
plungers.
IF there is a sudden heavy play on one
of the horses, the outside man has to race
at top speed no matter how many obsta-
Giles in the shape Of human beings he may
encounter, TO his employers stool to ac-
quaint him with the fact Outside men in
this way frequently save their bookmakers
thousands of dollars by reaching their
stands before the commissioners of the
plungers have got along to get the big
money down at a larger price than that
prevailing along the path where they have
spread their huge markers.
The outside man keeps foxy eye, when
he has the time. upon certain owners who
are known TO bet only when they know
that they have almost a certainty Of win
ming. and he warns his employer of all
these little facts.
when an outside man gets through his
afternoons work he does not feel much in
need of exercise. A foot ball team COM
posed Of stalwart bookmakers' outside men
beat