The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-25
SURE THING BETS ON THE SEA
A BOOKMAKER'S BAD LUCK ON A
TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS.
Even the Porpctses n scaEuIls Were Made
20 Enter the League Against Him "A
100 TO 4 shot on q rea ship -Quecr
wsgers That Resulted All One way.

y ~ VIZ aAHa .C88uhhn WIZ h'es
20 Enter the League Against Him "A
o TO I shot on q Tea ship -Queer
wagers nat Resulted All One way.
-I've Just been down to the picr 70 shake
dada with that bunch OF chslkers who
chose the steamer way Of getting to New
Orleans for THEIRS said a bookmaker.
Nice thing, that steamer trip down. BIT
they can have il.
Il went that way last year. When I
got to New Orleans / went to bed for seventy
two hours, the old Creole doctor Of the hotel
dropping In on me every little while to
ask me why at my age I hadn't behaved
on the steamer ride. Anyhow, I'm never
going that way n more.
Leaving aside how those steamer riding
layers never went to bed the whole trip.
the betting games that they kept going
from pier here to pier there prevented me
from getting any sleep. / was one Of the
Pstsies from end to end.
Il got in bad on the first book that was
made before the steamer left the pier here.
Twas a crafty chalker that made that book.
He wrote the names Of the seventeen OF
US, including himself, on his slate and then
laid prices on OF being seasick.
He cleaned up big. He knew something
about the seasick game that the others
didn't know. The small, weak, unhealthy
looking, shrivelled chaps in the party he
held at low prices. He gave the big odds
against the big, rugged, husky chaps be-
cause he knew hat the hearty, healthy
fellows are always the first TO go down
with seasickness.
Most of us bit on the nice long odds laid
against the fellows who looked as IL nothing
could make 'em sick except a quart or two
Of prus sic acid. They were all blasting
the eyes OF the man who suggested the
ste trip before the boat headed down
the Jersey coast, while the withered, one
lung looking little shrimps of the party
were up on deck pitching quoits, beating
the gong for wet products and smoking
long black cigars.
Il called the turn right only once on the
whole blamed expedition and then my
correct bet was a piking $40 note. Il was
about the rig Of ships.
"One Of the sure thingers in the crowd
OF layers offered to lay me S TO I that the
next sailing vessel 70 show above the horizon
ahead would be a schooner. He was giving
himself all the best Of il, at that, for most
Of the sailing vessels that you see on those
coastwise rides are schooners.
Put I took SO worth Of his s to / on the
bunch that l couldn't go on losing all my
life. The next sailing vessel TO loom up
ahead was a full rugged ship about the
size Of the Capitol at Albany, with all sails
set and drawing.
The first officer told us that she was a
tea ship from Japan bound for New York.
The odds against that kind Of a deep sea
craft showing up in the midst Of such a
flock Of ~northbound coastwise schooners
ought to have been 100 to l, at that, but l
was content to drag any little old kind Of a
bet down. 1t was the last and only one l
got over during the cruise.
Il think 7 was frisked out Of one bet.
Three seagulls picked the steamer up the
second day out and flew lazily along in her
wake, picking up the eating junk dumped
through the galley trough.
A bit after shutdown one of the gang
offered 20 lay me ever money that there
wouldn't be any seagulls chasing the ship
on the next morning at daylight. l bet him
$50 even that there'd be at least one sea-
gull flying after the ship at daylight the
next morning. | had .hree of EN- running
for me, you see, at sunset, and 10 looked
pretty sweet that one Of EN- d stick,
anyway. and pull me dow my bet.
L stopped playing hearts in the smoking
room at daylight, and when the game
broke up in order TO allow the bunch to
slip down and get under the spray baths
I remembered that seagull bet and went
aft TO look for my gulls. NiXy gull
The man I had made the bet with was
already there and he clipped me a wallop
on the hack and gave me the boot when
he pointed out that there wasn't a seagull
in sight from one rim of the sea 10 the
other. l dug: but a month or so later
one o, the bunch tipped me of, giving me
the laugh, that that foxy duck I'd made
the seagull bet with had spent about two
hours before daylight chucking hunks Of
coal at the three .seaRulls that were follow
ing the ship, and that's how be succeeded
in chasing EN-.
Il got in bad on the porpoise dope, too
l Joined a gang up in the bow Of the ship
who were watching a coup Of ~porpoises
that were swinniny along with US. One
Of them offered TO lay me > to l that one
Of the porpoises would jump out Of the
water three times 70 the other ones once,
and was the cone on for that ri-ht away.
BE hin $50 TO 800 that he ha the wrong
chart on that proposition. Then the one
that I'd bet on stayed riyht in the water
all the time, while the other one heaved
out Of the briay about seven times every
minute.
I'D played a lame Porpoise. or some
thing, that's ala porpoise that was all
10 th g nix on the jump stun. The man
I'D bet with had been watching the pair
of ~porpoises for half an hoLr, and, Of co4rse,
he was there with the past performance
thing. / Suppose | wasn't q come on or
nothing on bets like that.
Il was toe Pat, too, for a thing that looked
as easy to me az laying anything you want
against one Of Bill Days horses to finish
in the money in 2 sta &c race. One morn
ing there was a paint swabber wor Aing
around the decA who had every Ole Oleson
or Yon Ionson tn AZ ever saw backed Oh
the boards for being a Swede or Scandi-
hoolihan of some Aind.
-he mad a mustache the color of lard,
top hemp the 'sauIe nue.. ruddy skin, IN
lent, up turned nose, the whole layout Of
marks Of a 5 Sede if ever one OF the II landed
az the SarS re Office. | kne =, too, that y Gede
ga .lors are the deckhCnds on lost of these
coast wise stea nerS.
And so when one OF the deep ones Of our