Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-14

ATLANTIC CITY. n. J.-No pool
rooms are open here this year, nor has
the quiet tip been passed around yet
that the under cover faro banks and
poker and crap games are ready for
business. Therefore the loungers in
and around the boardwalk hotels, pro-
fessional chance takers as well as the
! large class of leisurely and moneyed
chaps, are doing all kinds of freak bet
ting among themselves.
This seasons rage among women for
peacock feathers in their hats affords
these boardwalk bettors their main
chance to get action on their money.
They manipulate the peacock feather
bets in all sorts of ways. The most
popular way is for a group of half
dozen or so of the bettors to make up
pool, each man putting in from 81 up
to $40 and each taking guess as to
how many women with peacock
feathers will pass by the Boardwalk
hotel window in given space of time,
the usual period of time chosen being
five minutes.
The fellows who are we'll up on the
peacock feather dope do pretty well at
this game. One man got five noviCes at
ii into $40 apiece pool the other after
noon. The new men at the game, not
having paid particular attention to the
prevalence of the peacock feathers in
the women's hats. took low numbers.
One of them guessed that five women
with peacock feathers in their hats
would go by within The five minutes
and the remaining four of the novices
picked figures up to eighteen.
The expert who organized the pool
took last say, and he amazed the others
by registering his prediction that forty
nine women with peacock feathers in
their hats would trip by within the five
minutes. His poolmates laughed at
his guess But fifty-seven women with
the peacock feathers ornamenting their
headgear swung by within the given
time-it was during the crowded pa
rading hour-and the wise one who had
played the game before hauled down
the $50 pot.
The peacock feather game is also
played according to the layer and bet
tor system of the men who have to
have some kind of action on their coin
all the time. The layer will offer what
ever price he thinks right, according
to the hour of the day and the size Of
the crowd Of boardwalk paraders. that
the next women to cross an ina ginary
line in front of the window won't have
any peacock feather in her hat. The
price he offers ranges from 3 to to 8
or 10 to /. The chaps who take the
affirmative end of this proposition are
entitled to the benefit of what are
called splits. That is to say, if two
or three women are walking abreast
and together and one of them has pea
cock feathers in her hat. the man who
bets on the feathers gets the~money.
At night when the great majority of
the boardwalk women discard their
hats altogether and use wells, the gam
bling has to do with the color of the
next veil to appear. As the wells thus
worn are of all the brilliant hues of the
rainbow, this makes lively game and
the man who lays the price has all
thS best of it.
They also bet with each other as to
whether the next woman to cross the
imaginary line will or will not have
a veil around her hair and this is a bout
an even thing. The color of the board
walk woman's shoes also offers an OPP
portunity to the handbook makers. The
variety in the colors Of boardwalk
shoes makes this a lively game. The
handbook maker holds out black shoes
altogether, as being much the common
est, but the bettors have all the colors
of women's shoes to pick from-tan,
red, white, champagne. and so on.
! The immense number of boardwalk
dogs of all kinds, attached to their
strolling mistresses by leashes, fur
nishes another line of betting action for
| the louHgers who must have something
going all the time. The fellows who
make handbooks on the dog proposition
have got this game doped down to the
! finest kind of point Here's the way
they arrange their prices; Fox terriers,
even money; Boston terriers. to 1;
bull terriers, to 1: poodles of all kinds,
5 to |: colies. 6 to l: bulldogs. to /;
spaniels of all kinds, 10 to |: Great
| Danes and mastiffs, Is to |, and so on.
| It will he observed by those acquainted
with hookmaking percentages that the
makers of these boardwalk dog books
give themselves quite a shade. even
| though the fox terriers are far more
common on the walk than dogs of other
breeds. But the fox terriers are not
| common enough to make them even
| -