Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-31
WOMEN AS GAMBLERS

THAT was a real cunnin little yarn that
sifted by cable over here from England the
other day. to the effect that Danny Maher.
the American jockey who has been riding In
Great Britain for the past five years, was
engaged to be married to the daughter OF
Sir Daniel Cooper" observed one of the
old-time Pinkerton men on duty at the
Benning race track. 'of course the fairy
tale got the quick boot from the turfmen.
especially those among them who have
raced or trained In England and who are fa-
miiiar with the social conditions over there.
But they were ready to give credence to
the second edition of the story, which ap-
appeared on the following day. That second
edition set it forth that the young daugh-
ter Of Sir Daniel Cooper. beautiful debu-
tante, had, soon after her coming out. fall
en- in with set that played bridge for high
stakes. The girl had lost heavily-so heav-
lily that she was afraid to tell her titled
dad. who Is a famous English turfman. of
tho losses she had made at bridge. So she
had appealed to Danny Maher, who had
ridden many winners in England for her
father, for some good tips Danny had
given the girl number Of fine, juicy win
out tips, and In the course Of this business
they had met g. number Of times and had
exchanged many letters. Hence the rumor
as to their engagement which was denied
In the second edition of the story.
The significant part of this story. it
seems to me. Is that which relates how a
young debutante in England can get her
self so heavily involved in gambling that
she finds herself compelled to appeal to
race rider for aid in getting her out OF her
scrape. Now. 1 don't know ythilg about
what Is said to be the enormous spread of
card gambling among women both in this
country and In Europe, but 1 do know q
whole lot about the remarkable spread OF
horse gambling among women living in
racing centers In the United States during
recent years. I've been In the bounding
business long enough to've become bit
caiioused suppose. but. all the same, I've
seen some things In connection With the
gambling OF women on the race tracks that
have caused me to take few short sud
den breaths occasionally
IL seems to me that women have, at bot
tom. an even profounder natural passion
for any kind Of gambling than men be-
lieve this because have noticed that when
women once get into the gambling game
good and hard, they rarely or never quit.
No kind or series of calainities. reverses.
or hardshfps resulting from their gambling
will stop them. They play the string out
to the very finish, and then some. They
temptation to gamble once they become
thoroughly welded to the practice. L an
speaking now OF their betting on the horses.
a subject with which am familiar from
New York and other race tracks. Men will
60 far with their horse gambling and there
are hundreds and thousands who. every
year, go broke at the game and get into
ell sorts Of trouble over 1t. But on the
other hand. there are plenty of men who,
even after they have become thoroughly IL
famed with the horse-betting passion, will
stop and take think when they have got
their long and inevitable series Of bumps.
A man Of this kind will pull up when he
sees that the game is throwing him FOR
to me as II I'm not going to be able to beat
this game. 1t looks. also, as II the game
bids fair to make a bum of me IL don't
chuck 1t. I'm going to chuck it, and con-
siderable percentage Of the men who have
the GOODNESS and the strength of Will to
reason the thing out in this way do chuck
the game when they see that 1t Is putting
them down and out, and chuck II per1ra-
nently 1 am bound to say that women once
they get into the full swing of betting on
tho ponies, hardly ever quit the game They
solemnly and sacredly aver that they are
going to quit it, every time they get Sc
vereIy jolted, but they're back at the
track, trying to beat the old thing. the
next day, and thus they go. on and on,
fighting the unbeatable, until the hnlSh.
Queer thing how persistently women
stick to the game, at that. They haVent
got q chance In the world. and some or
them even know this and still stick to It,
II nine thousand nine hundred and ninety
nine men out of ten thousand get 1t In the
neck In their horse-betting operations, It's
q wonder to me that any woman can ex-
pect to beat the old game. Men are min
Cling around with the bunch all the time.
They form racing connections. II there's
anything to hear, certain proportion OF
them hear 1t. They slide In and out OF the
paddock. They have chance to get the
best prices in the betting ring. They have
scientific ways Of keeping the dope. They
watch the workouts. They get into corners
with the reliable checkers and rail-birds, and
all that sort Of thing. Now, II the men who
tfa
yantages find that 1t Is simply Impossible,
wholly out of the question for them to beat
the ponies. how can women, VINO slt coopeo
I'D In the stand, keeping no dope generally,
at the mercy OF all the touts and cheerful
workers who swing along, never nearing
any sort of Information worth while-except
they be chorus girls and therefore chuTnrny
with tockeys-playing the old thing almost
purely on the guesswork system, and tax
ing grand stand prices that are often about
half the odds offered in the ring-hew can
women expect to beat the game?
but they go right on hoping, all the same,
and the tenaeity of women in their gam
bling operations is thing that always
strikes me as something pathetic. They
lose lose lose on the ponies, day after day,
month after month, year after year, and
vet they never let go. They go right ahead
with that wistful hope, impossible or all but
impossible of fulhllment, that they'll sooner
or later land on some old kind or 100 10
1 shot that'u recoup them and atone for all
They're always barking back, mentally, to
some stable win they made early In their
horse betting career. To my mind. the
greatest calamity that can possibly happen
to woman visiting a race track for the
first time is for her to make a clever win.
1t inflames her and gets her going. 1t looks
all SO easy. And then she's started for fair.
I know of several cases In which men,
merely casual racegoers have taken their
wives to the track merely for an afternoons
outing, and their wives have by pure accf-
dent and hunch-betting landed on some
long priced winning proposition with few
dollars, thus getting the horse bug to such
an extent that they simply could not resist
going to the track, even by stealth, against
the express promise made to their hus-
bands. every time they get a possible chance.
They had their imagtnations aroused over
those accidental initial wins. and the horse
bug claimed them for its own. And when
a woman gets into this state of mind she'll
take the rent money and the instailment
coin and the grocery bill currency and even
the price of a hooked sewing machine out
to the track in her frenzy to get her little
bets down on the hopeless proposition Of
pony gambling.
There they go, to a good start! You
can take 1t from me, there's many a girl
and woman In the grand stand right now
who'll have to go shy an Easter hat or
tt1a hat