Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-03
IN THE FREE F|ELO'
Characteristic Incidents OF
the Cheap Enclosure.
ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE
APPEARANCES ARE NOT ALWAYS
TO BE RELIED UPON.
Dingy Apparel Does Not Invariably
Indicate Lean Wallet-Favor-
ties Not Popular There.
ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

During the Benning meeting that closed
yesterday that so-called free field TO the
west of the main grand stand was sad
looking Enclosure.
There were days when the dilapidated
stand-open to all the winds of heaven
xroaned and swayed under the pressure of
as many as twenty male persons. They
were. as a rule. cherries lot of rooters
From their angle they had about as much
of a chance to correctly size up a finish as
II they'd been sitting In the fore-peak of a
skin on the bosom of the turgid Eastern
branch. so that they often made dead sure
that the last horse of closely-bunched
short field bearing down upon the wire got
the main money. and shook hands with
each other accordingly.
One lone bookmaker did business under
meath the free field stand. The book
makers daily expenses were about $50. On
several days this bookmaker handled fully
s26. When that bookmaker went away
from Washington last night he was shaking
his clenched fist at the white dome out of
the car window. and saying hoarse things
to himself.
Racing being the game Of contradictions.
in terms we'll in results they called
1Ndl west the Tree Hetu
for an eminently congruous and compatible
reason: Because It wasn't free.
The hoss-bugged individual who had the
nerve to take his place In the free field"
was set hack. as the price of his admission.
one Observation-Disclosures is to say, dollar.
They still continue to call 'em free
fields" in New York. too. where the price
of admission to the free field ranges
tho antique years there really were free
fields attached to New York race tracks,
and all English tracks still have free fields.
But there are no free fields connected with
American race tracks any more On the
western tracks the entrance fee to the free
field so called Is from 80 to rs cents-the
merest silvern trifie. of course, although
silver has its uses too
But very, very different are the New York
free fields" from the one-simoleon in
closure at Benning. All kinds of folks
view the races from the cheap fields at
tached to the New York race tracks. The
plker stigma used to attach to the indi-
Nidual who resorted to the New York cheap
field. but that is no longer the case In the
New York racing bunch there are sIews and
Slathers of people well able to afford the
grand stand-where the admission fee is 81
who repair to the cheap field for the fun
OF the thing and for another reason or two
In the cheap fields of the New York tracks
we nave often seen quite sinful stacks of
ochre-hued money In the possession of per-
sons whose hats We would not wear to an
Alexandra dog fight. and whose shoes had
broken away to the merest upstrapped san
dals. Similarly, at base ball games we have
seen sun gods on the caiortc bleachers. who,
despite the rumpled dfnginess of their raj
ment. could put us up on the block and sell
us, and then buy US In again out of mere
caprice. despite our pulchritudinous ap-
parel and our fixed habit of looking SUI
perior and naughty while sitting in boxes
at base ball games.
All OF which means. Ii II may mean any
thing. that clothes make the man in every
other domain except that of sport-racing
most specifically.
Undeserved Sympathy Bestowed.
Once. in the cheap field at the beautiful
old Morris Park race track In New York
we had been assigned to cover the cheap
field end on big stake race day by a city
editor jealous of our growing power and
space bills-we stood alongside a man who
looked like the flag end OF a hey-Rube riot.
TINS man emitted no aroma as of spiced
FaIernlan. nor of blushful hippocrene
either. You would have said, had you been
there. that the man had only left his IA
Vorte sawdust corner of the Bowery barrel
house for the purpose of viewing the races
we only stood alongside of him because
sheering off was out of the question the
crowd being extremely dense.
AM! said We to ourselves. with that
SNUG superiority which is habitual with US,
regard this poor castaway at our side r
waiter, no doubt in some horrific beanery
the exuding fumes Of which would make the
waited righteousness OF the fertilizer
works seem as fragrant as believed honey
suckle at dawn by comparison. Here tnen
IS this broken hulk, cast up on the lee shore
Of racing. He has hard wrung one-dollar
bill, belize, upon the result of the contest
Cor which the clarion will presently sound
In an or his CRIME and his peripatetic
sQualor, is he not yet a figure of pathos?
Consider what the loss of that dol"
However. Just at that point in our solil-
oquy came the colossal cacophony myriad
throated. announcing that the horses were
of
1t was hurdle race. We had a IS or a
$40 note, or some such frivolous matter
wagered upon the winning chance OF one
jumping rogue owned by F. Ambrose
Clark. the young millionaire gentleman
rider, The rogue's name was Rowdy.
Rowdy won
After the numbers were hung out and the
horses returned TO the stand, two or three
OF the stodgy. short-legged riders of the
jumping horses were summoned to the
judges stand. 1t was the briefest heart
to-heart Capitalization between judges and
riders in our recollection.
Rowdy's number came down from the ton
and Tankard's-at 20 to Twas showed up
there in Rowdy's place.
Kind o. punk f'r me. hey?" quietly OBJ
served the smeary man alongside whom
we were standing, turning his grin of grease
in our direction. "On'y makes dfrence
O. six t'ousan' Z me, dats ALL"
He had bet 500 straight on Tankard at
30 to /.
We saw him collect the money We saw
him ride away from the track in hired
chug-chaise directly he had slowed diff
ferent sections OF the six thousand in va
rious portions OF his clothing
But little while before our heart had
been aching for that smudgy man.
But how ferociously we hated him now
that he had profited, and so stupendously,
by the disqualification of our horse that
despicable rogue and horse of the Evil One,
Rowdy'
All OF which may show that for the man
in the cheap field OF the New ork track,
as well as for the man In the grand stand,
the world may swim in rose.
You see. IL all hinges lar3n those three
sided-number things that are clanlped on
to the upright scantlng across the track
from the judges stand
Could We but arrange to have those num-
bers clamped up there in a sequence of our
choosing, we would be content to live in a
well for while, like our friend Francois
Villon of the yesteryears. With those
numbers pinned UP In accordance with the
way you've previously marked your pro-