Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-25
Bv Clarence L. Cullen.

That new betting system at Benning may
be very Henglish and all that, but 1t GER
tainly is work It's exercise. It's all the
medicine for torpid liver or slothfui KID
neys. It's not a game for absent-ninaeo
beggars or drowsy people. What you Wih'
you earn-if and when you get H. fou may
not cover the entire Marathon distance in
the course OF an afternoons battling 1or
that So that you want to hand the furni-
tnre installment man, but all the same
you'u qualify as a two-gaited two-hoofer-
walker and trotter. You'll be eligible Tor
the sprints, tie heel-and-toe thing and the
middle-distance joys, and you'll know
enough about the tackling feature OF foot
ball to break into almost any scrub team
Moreover, you'll be there with a trained
vision thatH make an eagle look IKE oat
or a ground owl ,,..,o
For you see, this new thing is niue
game of "mazoom, mazoom, who's got the
kale. and where's mine?
Your great problem at the race track USED
to be:
to get something.
(2l-To fetch something home SOS to
square It with your wife for going.
IN B-When the average married man
carries a bundle home from the track ne
aces with his wife. When ne gets NOME
broke with a pathetic story about now all
of his good things got beat face on the
tape she informs him that he's low, COM
mon, onnery gambler, so there now2
X
Under the present rig-up there are
whole lot of additional problems.
First YOU dope out a maybe winner.
When YOU get this all settled In your
mind and succeed in tagging the wisdom
packers who seek to steer you otherwise
YOU begin to hunt up a bookmaker. when
you do finally succeed in catching an
oblique peek at his slate as he holds II hall-
screened by the flap of his oVercoat, you
find that the price chalked against the
horse of your selection is pretty punk
There's better in the ring than that, you We
heard. So you scramble up alongSIoe vi
about dozen of the furtive, cowed-looklng
layers only to find that the price oHered
against your mutt by the first oooknaker
whose slate you saw is the best price 50
you try to find him again.
That is, you try to find MIN again II you
don't know any better. You sift back 10
where he was, not minding the large, pant
ing men who stand on your feet as you go,
nor the elbow digs in the Stats that are your
constant portion. You find the place where
that first bookmaker was. but not him. He
has gone anyway from there TO some I'M
fathomably mysterious else-Whlther- You
remember that he had on brown derby
and n red mustache, and you begin to fran
tically rubber around for red mustache
men with those identification marks, but
they're not bookmakers. They're just
Washington fellows that you know, and
they. too, are hunting for some bookmaker
or other.
Finally when the horses are on their way
to the post and every layer in the ring has
chopped the price of the horse you want TO
play about four points, you make a despair
ing dive at the bookmaker who happens to
be nearest you and shove your money at
him as you would push 1T at the man in
the window of the circus ticket-wagon
That bookmaker is just erasing the price
w
and he chops IL another point or two right
while you're looking at him, but you can't
help that. It's too late TO help 1t by that
time. You've got to get down before the
start. and so you take the price he chalks
up and let ii go at that. That price is
about one-half the price that first caught
your eye on the slate of the bookie for
whom YOU have searched during the half
hour since you lost him, but you can't help
that, either. You give him your badge
number. politely request the man In mont
of you to kindly remove the heels or ms
two brogans from the toes of your two feet
not minding it at all when he turns his
head and calls you a fresh mug and a gay
lob out of the corner of his face-and then
you back as best you can out on to the
concrete lawn" to see how the plug you
have fallen for is going to reward you.
II that ones running for the end book
and doesn't win, your bother Is just so
much reduced. All you've got to do is TO
try it again.
But If. by some engaging whimsy or ca
price Of the Lady Fortune your horse does
happen to bring the wampum home your
troubles have only just begun.
Your elation is so great over the fact that
your horses number is displayed that
you dart into the ring to collect you quite
forget that the old betting system has been
changed and that the regime of the peripa-
tetic or Bedounistic bookmakers is on.
Having forgotten that much, you also find
that you've forgotten something else and
very essential at that-the location of the
bookmaker with whom you placed your bet
when you handed him your money. Not
that that kind of remembering would do
any good for the bookies are changing their
locations constantly. but still isn't such
bad idea to remember where he was when
you slipped him your coin. II only for. the
reason that that enables you to start out
from that location, on pure guesswork
bunch. and drift with the tide as, mayhap,
the bOokmaker has drifted. This Is on the
principle that bottle tossed into the sea
In midocean has got to pull up somewhere,
sometime. Castaway navigators guide
their jury rugged crafts by the pole star.
Your bookmaker's whilom location isn't
good the pole star for any kind of
navigation guidance. but it's something
In your hurry to get your bet down before
the start you quite overlooked taking the
booklets name. You don't remember hav--
anyhow, and II you had seen it you'd have
neglected TO pencil ii on your program. be-
cause you We're in hurry to get out and
the race. You remember however. that
your bOokmaker was a man with a hat and
an overcoat-blaCk hat. maybe a soft one.
and sort o brownish overcoat, you
hect-and So plunged into the ring vortex,
you drift around like a derelct in the Sar-
gasSo sea. looking for a bookmaker with
hat and an overcOat. You've only the
dimmest Imaginable recollection OF how
that bookmaker looked facially. You
weren't looking at his face when you made
your bet-you had eyes only for his prices.
But, with your dim remembrance OF how
he looked. YOU float around dlsnally.
You're eager TO get down your money on
the next race. but you don't feel like rub
bering at the prices on tap till you're been
paid of your winnings on the other race,
and SO you keep right on drifting between
the dell and the hyaeinthine sea.
Presently you catch sight of a Sinking,
furtive-eyed bookmaker. whose face looks
familiar to you. You nudge up TO the
cashier OF that bookmaker, get into line,
wait until five or six Buttinskis who've
never heard OF line have got theirs, and
then you call your badge number OFF to the
cashier He runs his pencil up and down
the list of badge numbers beneath your