Evening star., 1906-02-11

phta'S under-cover pool rooms Wnefe tls
play Is heavy got twisted In his CODE tns
other afternoon. so that for while the
proprietor of the plant stood a swell chance
Of being put out of business when the re-
suit of q certain race came In.
When the first line of betting On one Oh
the New Orleans races came over the wire
the new operator called the figures ON 70
the boardmarker. He gave Tichimingo
price at 20 to 1, and the boardmaker duly
chalked 20 to 1 against Tichimingo. The
horses past performances didn't warrant
anything like such a price. and the sharp
shooters in the room were quick to see the
out-of-line situation.
They went to Tichimingo with rush, and
for big money. most of them taking 20. .
and across the board. Even the slow
witted ones saw that there was something
queer about Tichimingo's price In that frst
line of prices, for In the house oetung
Tichimingo had been chalked up as the .
to favorite In a. large field. So even the
dull ones and the sure-thing pikers all took
a piece of that 20 to l against Ttchimingo
as soon as they could squeeze their way up
to the ticket-writers.
The proprietor of the room had been busy
talking with q friend when the bettins
came in on that race, and 1t wasn't untii
he noted, sort of sub-conSciously, the IN
cessant sing-song of the money,takers,
glanced up at the New Orleans blackboard
and became Mortified when he observed the
price on tap against Tichimingo.
He emitted a roar that instantly stopped
the taking of bets on the race, and then ne
beloved to the new operator to dig up the
New Orleans end and get conf1rmatory
flash on that extraordinary price agalnse
Tichimingo. In half minute the new OPP
orator was seen to turn the color of chalk
Then he hoarsely announced that Iicnl-
mingo's price was to l, and not 20 to l.
But the pool room players had had hVe
minutes leeway, and they had taken such
swift advantage of the error that the pool
room stood to lose something like $loooo IN
case Tichimingo, the actual faEorlte. snouio
win his race, as the dope clearly iuoi-
Gated that he ought to. There was no way
out of 1t.
1t IS an iron-clad rule Of the game that
a pool room has got to stand for the mis-
takes of it's employees The players khe"
this and their noisy gloating, when the er-
ror was rectified and when later there was
a flash on Tichimingo that reduced MS
price to win to to D. was almost savage.
Scores of them had to l against the morse
to finish third, when his actual price 10 WIN
was only @ to g. And seyen-eighths of all
the players in the room had hunk OF the
20 to to win. =,
The proprietor of the room was In an OBJ
yious state of panic. and all the pool room
employes were more or less stampeded, for
they saw their Jobs perhaps puileo from
underneath them In case Ilchimlngo Won.
They knew that $4,000 loss would close
the plant up, at least for a Whlie Inc
proprietor telephoned a hurry request 10 ms
hackers for a bunch of money to pad MS
bark-roll, to enable him to pay off II Tich-
imiEgo copped.
distressed operator in a quaVering tone.
'"Tichimfngo in the lead
The PLAYERS gave an exultant shout and
snapped their fingers nervously The pro-
prietor of the room looked ghastly
iohi hipoin
lengths" droned the operator, in the tone
of a sick man. "Tichimingo at the three
quarters by two lengths"
''Yee-ow!'' bawled the crowd. "Nothln
to it,
'Tichimingo in the stretch by two
lengthsr -
"Damnation!'' the pool room proprietor
was heard to growl over ana over again.
Then the new operator blared out the
name of the winner. The winner WASH
Tichimingo. The operator shouted out the
name of the horse that finished second
The second horse wasn't 1lchiminGo, elthef'
''Telepathy third! doomed the operator
with all his might
Tfchimingo hadn't finished In the money.
He had chucked the race in the last quar-
ter of q mile, and was beaten lust head
for the third money.
The pool room proprietor cracked a wan
grin and mopped his brow. deep groan,
punctuated by profanity, reverberated
around the room.
But the operator WAS UISu, All liic StilieI
at the close of the afternoons business.
His break had put the plant in peril of haV-
ing to put up the shutters, and he had to
go.
X =
The story of the Tichimingo incident
quickly sifted around among the horse
playing crowd. and there has been a lot of
talk about similar incidents since the Tichi-
mingo thing occurred at the Philadelphia
pool room.
"I've noticed that when the wise ones beat
the price and beat it big, the horse general
ly beats them," commented an old time
racing man who has run several pool rooms
of his own. 'In the racing game the luck
seems to always fight on the side of those
who, through error, give the players all
the best of it.
Perhaps the most remarkable case Of
that kind that ever occurred was In the
biggest pool room in Chicago on the day
when that great horse Tammany was a l
to 60 favorite-one of the shortest prices
ever laid against q race horse in this coun-
try. The Chicago pool room was on Clark
street, not far from the Board of Tradt,
building, and 1t was room frequented by
men who bet nothing but the large coin.
The operator at the end of the New York
end of the line, in ticking the prices to the
chicago pool room, sent it that Tammany
was go to ] on or meant to send it that
way. The on Of course. meant that Tam
many was the I to co favorte
But the New York operator either for
got To tack the word on to the Tammany
price or the Chicago pool room operator
failed TO catch the little word so that the
players in the room were amazed to see
talnmany chalted up as a 90 to 1 shot.
and this IN field of comparative NUTS
the wonderful Tammany that had been
sweeping everything before him like so
much chaff.
They grabbed it instantly in big lots
and nearly $4,000 worth of the tickets had
been written in the two minutes before the
proprietor of the room saw the bad brea k
on the board and called a halt while the
price was being verified.
You blasted Idiot. l wired co to / on
and not GO to ! against the New Yorl,
operator keyed back in answer to the Chi
cago operators query. and the roar that
went up In the room when the figures were
turned square around on the board, max
ing Tammany as he should have been. the
| to GO fayorite could have been heard for
blocks
We'll, the proprietor of the room, did the
baby act he got up on a stool and made
a whining address to the crowd who had
chewed up the GO to l against Tammany
begging them to turn in their tickets before
the race. draw down their bets and not
hold him responsible for the error In the
transmission of the horses price His speech
was greeted with jeers. The proprietor OF
the room was close price-maker a perci-
less winner. and an unpopuIar man yaper-