The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-15
HARD HIT BY LONG SHOTS.
BOOKMAKER BOWLES BEWAILS
HIS MISFORTUNES.

Had Two Bets OF 81 900 to $40 Against
Bette Landon and Is Moved TO Rent.
nlseenee-Gwynne TOmpkins's Revenge
on Namesake HOrse-Last Call o. Bet.
WASHINGTON, April 14.-George Bowles,
the good natured bookmaker, rubbed his
chin reHectively when the numbers went
up after the finish OF q two-year-old race
81 the track the other day.
Il WONDER muttered Bowles. softly, so
that only his crew heard him, III I'm the
fall guy again?'
Bette Landon had just Won the two
yeAr-old race, at 100 to 1, beating Al Powell
the 8 TO S favorite. by q nose on the tape
An apprentice rider named Noone, put up
on Al Powell to get a price, a gone 70
sleep on the colt In the stretch, and the
IAndon miss had crept alongside the odds-on
fayorite and nipped him before the slumber-
ing apprentice had Jared himself awake.
Bowies had two 81 900 to $40 Bette Landon
bets on his sheet. He climbed from his
stool md started down the bookmakerS'
line.
Get any Of those tin tags stuck to your
be asked tho next bookmaker on the line,
Nix was the reply. 'Clean sheet on
that ono. I'm keeping everything / took
In. How about you?'
Bowiss shook his head and made an eva
siye reply as he continued his journey down
the bookmakers' line. All the rest OF the
layers wers '~clean,' or virtually '~clean,'
as to Bettie LAAdon. A few Of them had
laid , to 1 third on the FLY for small wagers.
but nous Of them had been stuck for even
stray ono dollar bets TO win.
well, I'm the Patsey again, as usual"
remarked Bowles when he found that ned
bean tho only layer to get bitten on the
winning 100 to 1 thing. I'm the one they
always pin a rose to when there's q modern
miracle about to come of. When they float
up TO me with their 100 TO 1 change don't
feel sorry for them like l used to. Was q
time when / figured that l was ooppering
tho inBtalment man when / took that KIM
Of money, but, of late years / want to see the
numbers 60 up to ascertain whether I've
slipped myself a Citrop.
sOpe Of the two lunatics who handed me
those $40 notes on this little Bettie piece Of
brie that Just stole something called q race
looked like q motorman taking q couple
hours of between sub duty. he had a
malt edge on, and when he pushed up to my
high chair he smelled like the empty kegs
lined up outside the next morning.
.'Gimme that one,' said he. putting a
thumb that looked like a Panama plantain
over the names of two horses, Al Powell
and Bette Landon, on my slate.
Which, said /, the favorite or the
little LAndon flitter2'
II dunno said the trolley pusher,
rubbing a five days crowd Of red map
stubble with his nigh mitt. What dye
like?'
On your way to the next stall, Elwyn,'
l said, some peevishly, for there was a
bunch Of elbowers trying to make my stool.
4 don't like anything to-day well enough
to converse a long time about it.
Well he said, gimme tn one O. them
W that pays the most and he again put
that boxing glove thumb over the names
Of Al Powell and Bette Landon on my
slate.
Thousand to ten, Landon,' said /,
taking his wrinkly $40, and then he backed
ont through the crowd, looking as If some
body had filled an ace full on him when he
wasn't looking, and all the rest of the crowd
shooting him the gloat over the bug bet
thev'd heard him make.
1Uc OJuCI ALI W Shii oh slV oihA
float it over to me on the Landon thing was
q lank, gappy man who told ne that he was
from Leesburg, Va, the same place the
owner Of Landon lived, and that that was
the answer. l hated to take his money,
for he wore a hat that I wouldn't wear on
Staten Island and l noticed that his shoes
were some broken at the sides.
About six times that l remember I've
been the only gum in this Bennings ring to
get the goad when these 81 horses have
Mmmoxed over the line at Eighth avenue
fire sale prices.
-Four or Ave years ago ] got gnRwed on
that Tommy Poster thing, at 200 to l, by an
oqtogenarian who belongs to the Oldest
Inhabitants Association Of the District OF
Columbia. When this aged, lent old man
tottered up to my stool and began to count
dimes and quarters and halves out Of a can
vas sack the color of a wasbup towel in an
iron foundry | was 30 sorry for him that ]
felt like slipping him a $50 or something il
he'd promise me to go home to his great
grandchildren and never rlay the races
any more. After he'd sorted out $40 worth
Of the white metal junk he dumped it into
m y receiving hook and then leaned over
to me and squeaked, like the aged nan with
the asthma that he was:
Tommy Foster, young man, and may
his soul rest in peace
Il wanted to hand those scraps back to
him and started to, but he shook his shrunken
old head and wouldn't take It back. / sure
felt lumpy around the fohu for the old boy.
His map reminded me Of an old daguerreo-
type Of some ouble-great-uncle Of mine
that / used to see kicking around the house
when l was a tyke, I figured that maybe
he was living with the Little Sisters Of the
Poor and that he was slipping me dimes
and quarters and halves that he had pinched
; out of the tobacco money that some OF his
struggling descendants had handed him
But there was no giving the silver sliverf
back to him. Billy Snow, sitting on the
stool next to mine, saw me accept 1t, and he
called me a gouge and a Gaspard and a
grinder and q whole lot of other gruellin9
things of that kind, but what was / going
to do about it without actually throwing
It back at the old man, who was already
backing into the push?
three minutes later Tommy Foster was
home and in bed with the blankets pulled
up over his head. He came down to the
wire like a fire dog in front Of q hook and