Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-22
WHEN BABY ROW WON

This Washington hotel manager isn't
superstitous or anything of that sort-the
male biped never owns up to being super
stitious. anyhow. but passes that along to
his wife-but he is singularly addicted to
those indefinable telepathic waves called
lunches
He has been fooling with his personally
conducted lunches" for a good many years
now. in spite of the fact that his lunches
have never brought him anything.
He isn't exactly a gambling man. al
though he probably knows where to find a
little four-cornered game to sit into once
in a while But he is bunch player in
friyoling with all kinds of games of hazard
when the lunches come strong upon
him. and. to put 1t in his own words his
lunches infallibly paste him."
He had so many lunches" playing them
all. at the recent Benning meeting that he
declared himself to be about six hundred
lengths behind a summer vacation for him.
self and family at the close of the meet
ing.
Last week. however, one of his lunches
went through creased skidS.
The bunch" began with some lurid, loud
dreams that the old black nanny servant
of the hotel managers household had one
night about a week ago.
The old nanny sleeps on the third moor
of the house. and about midnight on this
particular night she began to moan and
whisper in her sleep audbly that the
hotel man and his wife heard the noise
from their sleeping room below
They went upstairs and found the ola
nanny sound asleep. but apparently in the
clutch of a nightmare. The hotel man S
wife prodded the old NANNY awake, toio
her to recline on the other side, and then
the couple went back to bed. Half an
hour later they had to repeat the perform
ance. for the means and groans came down
from the third floor with redoubled Vlo-
lence.
What ails you. M'lindy, anyway the
hotel man asked the old nanny.
Abs dun bin uh-dreamin twicet dat An
was one O. desc heah street cab men Wnut
tuhns de hannle an stahts de cab uh-goln
said the old nanny. nervously, AN dat
uh little baby got in de way o de can An
dun tried tub stop de cab, but All couldn' t,
an de cah's bin just uh--goin' tub run ovuh
de baby Wen yo' all woke me up.
well try to get yourself planted for a
dreamless sleep now said the hotel man.
and he didn't think any more about the
matter until, while he was reading the
paper on the following morning. he heard
M'lindy telling a black man at the back
gate all about it. The black man seemed
a heap interested.
"Ah wouldn't do fing but play de BABY
row eff All had uh dolluh,' he observed to
NJ Indy and the hotel man caught the
words.
by jing" he said to himself there is.
now, | remember. such thing as the baDy
row in policy and I wonder if this double
ended dream of M'lindy>s about the imper-
lied infant isn't a 'hunch' for me to take
a little crack at that baby row.?
The hotel man wondered about it all the
morning, and it carked and wore upon him
TO such an extent that at l O'Clock in the
afternoon ne picked out one of his most
reliable walters and sent him over to jack
son City with 50 wherewith to play the
baby row.
Now the baby row in policy is a PROPOSE
ton that only one policy player in mil
lion ever pulls down once in lifetime,
and it hadn't come out in this neghbor-
hood for years. 1t pays 100 to l, and 1t
really ought to be million to one shot.
The hotel waiter got action for the 80 he
had been sent over to Jackson City with
and, when the drawing came out 1T had
happened. The baby row was sprung.
The black waiter chartered bus to hike
him back to town with the 500. When the
bus pulled up in front of the hotel, the
waiter, who had heaved a few gin things
cumstances wabbled toward the hotel man.
ager. who was waiting for him. handed over
a bunch of money as big as double bar of
kitchen soap and remarked, thickly
DE teenshy one she dun come up, an
she alls uh baby"
The waiter got $50 for his end of it, the
old nanny got another 500 for her dreams,
the hotel man pinched out 500 wherewith
to celebrate his triumphai 'hunch.' and
his wife corralled the remaining $500 IN
moth balls to keep the lunches away
from it.
a ..hunch" IS "hunch." but when 1t is
backed up with a double-riveted, two-bar-
relied, Afro-American dream, it is sooth to
say q baby.