The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-26
MANY QUEER BETS
There Are Many Curious An.
giles to the Betting
Game.

AS rule Americans are noted for
their fairness and willingness to rake
an even break at any game of chance,
but there is certain class that is
everlastingly seeking to trap someone
on catch bet, says the Cincinnati
Enquirer. You will find persons Of
that character in all walks of life, and
in some cases they are hard to down,
but 1t generally happens that the up
and-up sport gets his just dues and
the fellow looking for bunch has to
take a back seat. Every time a big
sporting event is on, the man with
the catch bet hobs up serenely. In
the Gans-Nelson fight he was there
with proposition. and also in the
Chicago-Cub-Whiie SoX series, and. in
fact. anything in the sport line that
calls out the gambling spirit of the
public, finds him there.
II man could get together all the
differently worded bets ON the Cubs
White SoX series he would have
complicated mess that would drive
Philadelphia lawyer to the tall grass.
II those who are speculalively inclined
would only 60 about their business
more cautiously the catch bet experts
would soon be put out of commission,
but the great trouble is that man
maxim bet becomes so interested in
the prospects of pulling down the
whole amount at stake that he loses
sight of the essential parts of his
wager. 1t is then that the foxy man
with his catch bet gets in his fine Ital-
ian hand, and, though he seldom gets
with his work when there is a fair
stakeholder to decide the question, he
often manages to hoodwink the I'M
initiated and pull down the jack Dot
without even an argument.
The one great fault with people who
gamble is that they are SO intent on
winning their bets that they forget a
lot of the little details that sometimes
robs them of money they are Justly
entitled to. While not advocating bet
ting. the writer at the same time fully
realizes that goodly portion of the
worlds population is given to gam
bling, and on that account it will not
be amiss to say that the careful bet
ter wins as often as the lucky better,
and no one can deny that luck plays
a prominent part in speculation. It
would be good idea to establish a
rule governing all wagers where it is
proved that a man makes a bet with
full knowledge that he is sure to win
on a technicality or by some manner
or means that his opponent is un-
aware of that the man proposing the
catch bet should be considered the
loser, and in this way the practice
of obtaining money by questionable
methods would soon be broken nm.
One of the most common bets that
have been popped during the baseball
season Is this: Two teams are play
ing game of ball. One man bets
another that his team will make twice
as many runs as the other side. The
final score is 1 to 0. 1t has been de-
cided that the 1-to0 man wins his bet,
because one run is twice as many as
no run at all, for the simple reason
that If you should add ciphers all day
long the ultimate result would be that
you would have nothing In the end,
while the total of nine runs could be
made by the addition of one to every
inning played. In other words, one
is a thousand times more than moth
ing, or ten million times, II you
want to go that far.
One of the most amusing catch bets
that ever come up was sprung on the
sporting editor of the Enquirer when
a man entered the Office carrying a
pitcher of milk in bucket His
friend had bet that the milk was in
the bucket, while he contended that
1t was in the pitcher He was a bit
ruff1ed when the other fellow showed
that the milk was carried through the
streets in the bucket, yet both agreed
that the milk had never been taken
out of the pitcher. 1t was plain
catch bet, and, after little wrangling.
both men drew down their money.
Jack bets Jill S. that he (Jill) does
not have a IS bill. Jill comes up with
the five spot and they put the money
In the Stockholders hands. Then Jack
asks Jill to produce his IS, but Jill
fails to do 80 as he had all his wealth
in the Shareholders possession. Jack
then claimed the bet, but the stake
holder, being a fair minded individual,
called 1t a draw, as the money still
belonged to the original owner, and
his decision was just. All money
should be withdrawn when a draw is
declared, yet it has often been the case
wherein a man betting that so and so
would win a glove contest. or any
other contest for that matter, had to
fight for his money, because in making
his bet, he stated that he was betting
that his man would win. Unless spe-
cially stipulated all money is refunded
in case of draw
A bet came up last week that gives
one an idea of the careless way wagers
are made. One man bet the other
that the White Sox would win four
straight games from the Cubs. When
White tho
his opponent claimed the bet, but
counter claim was made that the bet
still held good. because the Sox still
had chance of winning four games
In succession at that time. BY simply
inserting the word first" all compli-
cations could have been avoided in
that instance, as when the Sox lost
the second game they also lost all
possible chance of winning the fret
four straight games
In pugilism many discussions have
been going as to whether or not a
boxers second throwing up the sponge
constitutes knockout. 1t has been
decided time and again that where the
sponge Is thrown in the ring to pre-
vent a man being knocked out, bets
made that knockout would result
must be paid. Still there are those
who will argue against paying their
bets because the man was not actually
knocked out.
Some years ago quite lengthy dis
cussion came up in this city wherein
a local shot, matched against five men,
defeated all but one man against him,
and they shot tie. The match was
at twenty-five targets. Both broke
that number, but the remaining men,
Der of the squad Of i've claimed the