Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-19
BETTING NO INDICATOR

cit Is about time" observed the box
jawed man. with the hard. steely eye, 'to
take an uppercut or two at that idea which
1 saw expressed in a newspaper the other
day, to the general effect that the glowing
game now in progress at Saratoga Is sure
indication of the wonderful prosperity OF
the country.
The country may be prosperous, all
right. don't know whether 1t Is or not
Here in Washington we're living In a little
old dream-spot of a place. where prosperity
or the lack of it doesn't joggle us one
sixteenth of an inch from our parhs ONO
way or the other.
We've Just about got 1t framed up mere
In Washington so that the failure OF the
peach crop, or the collapse OF the wheat
belt, or the caving in of the corn secuon'
or the fiattening out Of the cotton region.
or the woes of Kansas, or the miserles VI
Iowa, or the glooms of any other section
don't affect us much worse than the occa
sional tieups of the electric car lines. IN
this town we all come pretty close TO GET
tings ours, no matter how the game 8 gong
in the rest of the United States.
They tell me that the country's pretty
prosperous Just now, and I've got TO De-
iieve it, not having any special means OF
finding out whether she's prosperous or
not. But. my son. you may WIN peIIeee
safety paste in on the inside OF the sweat
they're doing up at Saratoga these days
isn't a teenchy weenchy little bit OF a line
on whether the country's prosperous or
not. -,
nary size to the top Of hill overlookins
Saratoga and get the proper kind OF 10
Gus the giddy bunch that are MAKING
things sizzle up there and keeping the news
papers full of their names, you'd come
pretty nigh observing that all of those PEG,
pie have got their little game so charteo
out that they're. prosperous all the tline'
The coolsome individual and art connols,
seur who's getting all OF the high-Wheel
and case-card play in Saratoga claims, II
you've noticed. that the amount OF top
notch gambling that happens in his gar1sh
establishment each year is a dead-certain
barometrical indication, so to speak, OF the
state of the nations prosperity or the lack
Of prosperity.
poor grade Of the poppy.
THE fact that some noted plunger walks
into the gambling plant every night and
losses buttons worth $3.50 apiece around on
the layouts does not for sure thing show
me that the motorman standing on the for
ward porttco Of a Saratoga trolley car for
$1.75 per diem, or thereabouts, is breaking
his galluses any with too much prosperity.
THE fact that some cute boy Of sky
high horse-bettor lounges up every day to
the stool of an adipose bookmaker. and,
after a slight cough to indicate how bored
he is, says, Fifty thousand on that colt OF
mine. Bum Props. straight, doesn't prove
to- me that the section hands mending the
tracks of the railroad four miles due west
of Saratoga, at the wage-rate OF $1.23 per
lunar day, are laughing themselves into
early graves over the abnormal prosperity
of this land Of milk and honey and rum and
gum.
when Augie Belmont yawns slightly be-
hind his hand. and then instructs one OF
his SIS COO-a-year horse trainers that there's
a colt over in Jim Keene's barn that he's
willing to cough up $65, 900 for, does that
go to prove that the carpenter who has to
bum his ride on a side-door Pullman to get
to a town where he has chance to earn
living wages. Is coming in for his end of
the rake-of in the country's booming pros
perity?
when me old college chum and polo
mate. Foxy Keene, sitting on the porch of
his eighty-room cottage at Saratoga an
nounces to the bunch around him in tired
sort of way that he's just ordered by cable
three new pink fends Of automobiles. capa-
BILE OF attaining speed Of 31S kilometers
an hour on sandy stretch, does that go
to show that the young fellows working as
clerks at $3.50 a week have got any better
chance than they ever had to stand off
sessed of the evil eye?
When Mrs. Oh-Fewidge, the beautiful
divorce recently arrived at Saratoga,
drives through the thoroughfares of the
Spa In mazarine blue trap hitched to
three horses abreast that cost $50, 800 to
match, the auriferous assonance Of golden
bells jangling from the jewel-set harness
as she proceeds along her way, does that
give any sign that the one-lunged and half
fed girl. working for eleven hours a day
In carpet factory for $3.50 a week mot
including f1nes), Is tied up to any monu-
mental extent with the mighty chariot of
prosperity?
Because the imperious spouse OF l.
Snagem. the renowned bookmaker, appears
on the lawn of her Saratoga cottage for
breakfast every morning wearing s125 900
worth of diamonds. does that offer any
dead cinch of an indication that Nora. who
swabs down the second tier of steps In the
United States Hotel at o'clock every
morning, and does other back-bendng
chores besides. for so cents day, Is feel
Ing the ichor Of prosperity tingling in her
veins?
Understand. I'm not bounding out into
the open and making the howl that Pros
perlty, with capital P, isn't Astounding
and abiding with US just now. But when
any tack-head tries to talk 1t into me that
our prosperity is certainly indicated by the
way the bunch at Saratoga are staying up
O., nights and playing red-and-black and
otheE things in general, and hurting mag
NUNS of the Gallo hiss-1 juice into their sys
tens they don't get by with it. that's ali.
and that which I have just spoken unto
you Is no paprika persifage on the portico.
Percy, either 49,