Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-19
SWEAR-OFFS ALL THERE
ON THE OPENING DAY

opening daS-lncIudlnS tne S"eai-oiA
Ever meet up with a swear-off. He's the
boy that's through with 'em. Never again
for him. He had his'n. When you meet
him a week or SO before the meeting be-
gins, and ask him il he's going out lie
rounds upon you almost fiercely.
mix on that" says the swear-on, In
tone of violent and wrathy decision. Me
ever bet another dollar on a race MORSE
Say, you must have stored your winter coal
in your conk. Didn't tell you, last Jay
of the spring meeting at Benning. thai
that was my wind-up at the game Tor ali
time? Well, that went, and 1t still goes!
I'm done. haven't got any more horse
Dug in my system. I'm hep, at last. Moth
ing in It,. Can't beat EN-. They'll get Your
shirt II you stay with 'em long enough
Sucker game. Only the bone-heads stay
with it, ! fooled with it for bout fifteen
years, and it never got me nothin- What
ever other knock they may rig UP about
me, nobody can say that don't know when
I've had enough. So far as I'm concerned
the horses are scratched, see? l wouida
bet a two-bit Colombian shn-plaster on q
million to one shot If knew positively that
II was a frame-up in which the stewards,
judges. starter, time-Seeper. owners and
Jockeys aud track sweep-ups all STOOD 70
pull down their bit. No, stree! l Wouiuh
bet. a quill toothplcll against Rockefeller
bank-roTl that Sysouby could beat one OF
the Bennlng harrow horses doing any hing
from jump to four miles, ana : u ta
that isn't going some when it comes 10 be-
ing dsad-set against the gee-gee game.
IF they expect to get any OF my hdiu-
wrung duff they've got to come at me WIN
n broad-axe and then I'll be right back at
'em with writ of replevin and man
damus, No. / m not even going out the f1rst
day, just to look EN- over-you ought 10
have more sense'n to ask me a fool ques-
ton like that. I'm not going near the
10 d1V Otler Ola
day Passed the game UP forever. Haven
made bet since the last Bennlng meet, ana
that's the reason that I've had two-buck
note ON me occasionally since then. never
had a car ticket while / was playing EN-.
You can chase out there and slip your coin
TO the bookes just often as you blamed
please, but me-nev-ver!
But he was there, all right, on the first
day along with the hundreds of other
swear-offs He tore around the betting ring
like a wild man looking for the best prices.
and when he slammed into the friends to
whom, only a few days before, he had
fiercely announced his eternal severance
from the pony game he was there with
some quickly-devised excuse or other.
Friend visiting me from the west, and
had to fetch him out to entertain him, was
one of the excuses. Heard about some
thing doing in the fourth race that 1t ud
have been sinful for me TO overlook, was
another. "Oh, I'm not betting my own
money-getting it down for another Teller"
was one more. Had to have business
talk with a Teller, and, as he was bound
to come out 10 the track, why, 1 had to
come along with him., was still another.
Thus fiimsily did the swear-offs seek to
cover up their busted resolutions We cut
the trail of Just one of them however who
when nailed red-handed in the very act of
eagerly coming "dope-book, away off in
one of the quiet corners of the betting
ring, owned up.
I'm caught with the goods" said he,
land that's all there is to 1t. Yep. I'm
here. Uh-huh, I'm playing 'em. Going to
play every race. I'm playing two of 'em
In this race, both to cop. Yep. L member
taking a solemn VOW that l was never
going to play another horse. Sure, 1 re-
member it. Certainly. Took a hull lot of
solemn VOWS just like that. But I'm here,
amt |? And I'm playing EN-, amt 1?
And I'm going to be here every day, and
play 'em every day while the meeting lasts.
aln't 1? Sure! Whatchoo going to do
about it?''
The people adverted to In the racing pa
pers as the New York regulars" were
there, of course, by the hundred. 1t is
curious how familiar one becomes with the
countenances of the regulars of the race
tracks on circuit. The regulars are the
fellows who follow the racing game year in
and year out, never missing a day at the
tracks from the beginning to the close OF
a season. If you're of a speculative turn
OF nlllu you re apt TO WOHUeT, every IlIne
you meet up with the same old crowd of
regulars. how many If not most, of them
get by" The majority of them play 'em
from the ground'-that is to say, they bet
on the horses with their own money, day
in and day out, year in and year out.
Where do they get it?' is the question
that recurs to the mind OF the curious one
every time he sees them. Most of them
always look well-groomed. They put up at
the best hotels. go to the best theaters. eat
at the best restaurants after the theater,
ride to and from the track in autos car
riages: are generally there" in brief, with
a plethoric, comfortable-looking bank wad
Where do they get il? The game is hard
heart-breaking one. All of the mathe-
maticlans of the tracks tell us that nobody
can beat the horses for any protracted
period-that the percentage against them Is
incomparably bigger than the percentage
In faro bank the wheel or keno, or
any other game of chance against the play
er. But still these hundreds-yes, these
thousands-of regulars go on fighting the
old thing from day to day and from year
to year, and they always look trig, band
boxy, well-fed and sassy" What's the
answer? There isn't any that we know Of
and so we pass along.
There's big bunch of Washington regu
lars. too, and some of them. oddly enough,
are chaps that you never happen to meet
anywhere else except at the Benning race
track twice a year. You're acquainted
with some of them but the great majority
of them are fellows with whose counte-
nances alone you are acquainted, having
seen them at the Benning track-and no.
where else-for years past. You know that
they're Washington men because you hear
them say so, on the cars on the in or out
trip, around the track itself Most of
them are pretty stiff betters, and their
money is educated money" at that APP
parently. They play the brand of dope
known as "info."-th turfman's contrac-
ton of information and they "get the
kale' oftener than not. But it's queer
where they keep themselves, in Washing
ton, when the Bennlng meetings are not
going on. 1t sure Is.
Some of the Washington regulars, of
course are very well known to everybody
Now, for instance, there's Jim-but sh-sh!
Some OF these Washington regulars. too,
belong TO the 'swear-offs," and they
wouldn't have it generally known that
they'd back-slid for a whole lot
There are plenty OF married couples who
are Washington regulars at the Benning
track. and they were all there on the OPEN
ing day. of course. Some of these married