Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-20
MEN Who FAIL
TO PAY RACE BETS
'WeIching' Not So Common as
Formerly, Yet There Are
Notable Instances.

Burke the bookmaker commenting upon
that recent WEIGHING incident, in which
club house commissioner is said TO have de-
rberately laid down 10 the tune of $780,
COO
Il don't know anything about the merits
OF that particular case said Burke, but
I do know that there are not many of them
gyrating around the ring or club house now
adays that would be allowed to frame up
and get away with $4,000 WEIGH. And
that goes also as to the heavy players who
operate from the ground. 1t must be re-
gnembered tnat one of the big players from
the ground WEIGHED on little party of
bookmakers to the tune of nearly 100000
less than two years ago, and l haven't
heard that he's made good yet
L suppose that there will be a certain
amount OF WEIGHING long as there is
betting. but the WEIGHING business grows
more infrequent all the time. 1 can re-
member when the weichers on both sides of
the fence-that is to say, the layers and
the players-were as common as stog1e
smokers in Wheeling. But they're few and
far between at this stage of 1t. The lay
ers. on their side, are not now accepting,
in lieu of tile coin, the upturned fingers
OF every good fellow with whom they've
happened 10 take a casual drink in hotel
cafe, as they used 10. The man with the
horse bug who aspires to be a digit player
has got 10 be rignt, and he has got to be
known TO be right all up and down the
layers llne beTOre ne can tWlSt up 10 d
chalker's stool and get down On the thing
he likes without passing over the soap.
But We all have to stand for a bite once
IN a while. nevertheless. l was clawed
down at Benning this last spring, and it
set my sheet back a pat thousand. man
with a fine southern accent who had been
making 500 and $500 bets in my book, and
generally losing them. for a couple of
weeks, nudged up to my stool just as I'd
finished frescoing the prices for the second
running OF the Washington handicap. He
was man with a most engaging face and
manner. He said he'd like to have thou
sand dollars worth OF credit on The Clown
for the handicap.
TIN So-and-So. the proprietor of the
Such-and-Such HOsse in Baltimore, this
enga ging man with the southern accent
said to me in ais frank and agreeable way.
and l believe they would tell you at the
desk OF the -Iank Hotel naming of
the leading hotels in Washington that 1
am all right, cracking a smile as II even
the thought of anything to the contrary
amused him.
Well, here -. any decent way for
me TO turn this mar Gown, seeing that he
had been playing steadily in my book since
the beginning of the meeting. 1 took him
on for the thousand, laying him the top
ring price against The Clown There are
always many frSt-rate and dead-square
southern gentlemen in the Benning ring
on the big days that no layer who becomes
familiar with the countenances of them
likes to take a chance on turning them
down. The Clown finished third, and my
man with his southern accent didn't set
tie within the period embraced by the book
makers almanac, twenty-four hours.
asked about him at the desk or the lea ding
Washington hotel he had named, but they
didn't know MIN. He sliced four other lay
for thousand each on that same race,
/ understand, taking different horse with
each man. but winning with none of them.
There was less excuse for the others fall
ing for his game than there was for me-
for he had previously played less with them
than he had with me.
Treatment of Credit Bettors
This was a very exceptional case, of
course. In about nine cases out Of ten
the man who, to avoid inconvenience in
paying over large amounts Of currency. de-
sires to become credit better on the horses
in the main ring. has got TO be passed along
and stood for by some mOneyed regular
at the game whose word is as good his
TnOuaker. And even then the layer has to
take chance on standing for welch The
sponsor for a new man in the ring holds
himself ethicaly responsible for the man
he introduces only up TO a certain point.
After the new man has been doing bust
ness in the ring taking down winnings and
making good losses for little while, he is
then considered TO be his own footing.
and his sponsor can't be looked TO for
Inakegood in the case OF a WEIGH on the
part of the man for whom he has originally
stood
of course, If the new man welches at
Once-a very rare thng-the sponsor feels
himself bound to come to the front for the
amount OF me WEIGH at settling-up time.
The sponsors who hold themselves indef-
nltely responsible for the men they intro
duce in the ring are as scarce as rainy
days in Death Valley, but. at that, l did
business with one OF this kind at Sleeps
head Bay only last year.
The sponsor was a very well-known man
in the game. a broker OF wealth, who has
been racing horses of his own breeding for
many years, and what is unusual among
that class Of owners, getting not only the
fun, but the profit out OF It. while before
the spring meeting at Sheepshead began
last year this broker-owner introduced me
10 a young Colorado man whom he had IN
tow at an uptown hotel.
O. Make a mental Bertillon OF this one
the broker said to me, nodding in the d.
rection OF the young fellow with him. He's
right. He's had couple of years of cadet
ship on the California tracks. and now he's
along this way TO some real racing.
You let him go far he likes.
The broker-owner's say-so was just
good az a treasury order with me- par
ticularly as 1t was a rare thing for him
to give his oral wise 10 a new man on
the horse market. The broker introduced
the young Colorado chap TO three or four
others OF the layers and they took him
as i minted article, just as I had.
WEIGHED and Sailed for Europe.
THE young Coloradoan bumped me for
thousands In straight winnings from the
SO-OU, ana never caught up with him.
lie prodded the other ring men with whom
he was making finger bets just as hard
But his winnings and a good deal more, all
went at the faro bank-and Ii never was
in the cornucopia for any one man to beat
two games at one and the time. on
the day before that Sheepshead meeting
closed the young chap from Colorado didn't
emerge under the spotlight at settling-up
time, but none OF US worried. He had
got on the wrong side of my sheet about
5000 worth on the day before. and he was
into four OF the other layers about the
same amount each on the afternoons play.
He didn't appear ;, the track. but we fig
Ured that he sleeping of a big head
or something Of that sort. But the fol-
lowing day his name appeared among the
bunch Of those who had sailed to Europe
the previous afternoon
The FIVE OF us who had been stuck got
together and famed II over but none of us
even suggested the idea Vof bracing the
broker-owner for a make-good on the welch
of his protege. The young fellow had been
doing business with us for month on a
very heavy scale. and by the end OF that
time according TO The unwritten rule we
ttfv