Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-23
BETTING OTHER PEOPLES
MONEY ON THE HORSES

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bucket-that thing that looks like a pee
of spruce gum. mean. Now. you y; some
or your hired men attend to getting ne oUc
OF here, and You hitch up the fastest max
you've got make Roby for the first race If
it's in the horse-you've got twenty minutes
and get that $1,000 down on Rifle To win.
No chaw, now. Do as | tell you. Its moi
my dough. or I'd keep it in my wesk.t ana
not be ordering you around in this way
Go on, now-you re OF"
Jake, the road house man. a good fellow
and friend OF all the horsemen. WAS IA
suky and tearing for Roby tn ge; the
Sl,oo bet down on Rifle just three IN nutcs
later. couple of hartenders pulled my
friend out of the cistern and staked him 20
a change of toys. He warmed himself nr-
fore the fire and waited for Jake to Ect
back with his report.
Jake got back an hour after he'd start
ed. He had missed the first race by just a
face-a kittens whisker on the wire. Jake
had slammed into the betting ring bawl-ag.
Who wants Elm tou'saut on Rifle? 10 tie
bookmakers just as the flag had dropped.
and old Rife was already tOwropne HIS
field with 10 to l against his chance. Rifle
beat his field by about the width Of the
Bad Lands.
Now, just to show the unreasonabieness
of some men who ask their friends to d.
their betting for them. In spite o; al Tire
bedevilment through which that friend ot
mine passed in his effort 10 get that let
down for the Chicago expressman: va spite
of everybody knowing how he'd been dump
ed in his runaway and then back aeeled ry
spite. too. of Jake the roadhouse man
voluble statement and the supporting ties
tiEony of the bookmakers who had spcl
the wild-eyed Jake catapult into the ring
waving the soggy $1,000 bill, and begging
that il be taken on Rifle-in the face al al
this, the eXpressman never foTgaV my
friend for that $4,000 lose-out on R'le,'
as he called il. He pretended TO axe tire
story good-naturedly, but in the heart of
| him he was convinced that he had got the
~ somehow or another. and he'll carry
| that idea with him through life.
And the quick and constant shifting Of
betting odds is another thing that is almost
| bound, when a suspicious mans money is
| being put down by proxy, to give HIM
/ chance to work up a sort of hold-out sore
ness against his obliging friend and com
| missioner. It's all nonsense to say that uo
square man suspects friend whom he has
| every reason to suppose is square too.
| That may hold in all the other relation
! ships of life. but II doesn't go in racing
only last summer. at Sheepshead Bay.
| friend of mine as white and above
| board a man as ever laced his own shoes.
| got himself into a mean hash in his frantic
| effort to get down another mans money on
| a horse whose price being chopped
every time the bookies took fresh grip
! on their pencils. He hadn't thoroughly
| learned his lesson to the imbecility of
| betting another mans money at race
track. and when friend one morning
! passed him $500 and asked him to paste II
| on long priced good thing that had been
| smeared up for killing he foolishly took
| the money.
There ought to be at least go 10 l
against the trick the friend told him. but,
anyhow. don't you take less than 30 to l.
] If you can't get that. don't bet the coin, but
| bring IL back.
We'll, this good natured commissioner
| for a friend alert and waiting for the
betting on that race to open. but there were
| a lot of other ones wise to the trick, too,
| who were doing just the same thing. They
were standing right in front of the bookies'
| stools waiting for the first line of figures
| to be slapped up. Wheelock and Lichten-
stein opened the horse at l'O to !, and that.
| of course is what the rest of the ring made
| it. My friend with the 500 proxy money.
| in his effort TO edge his way up to stool
TO get some of this, accidentally trod on
another strugglers corn. lie got paste
| in the Jaw for that, and he got right back
! with one on the wind and an uppercut.
Then the two went to clnch. pair of
Pinkertons swooped upon them then. and
| 1t was the parade to the gate for the par
of them. My friend knew one OF the
| Pinks
"'Give us chance get pals bunaie
down won't youy he whispered to the
Pink. IN nudge to the gate with YOU
| willingly then. i don't want the man
whose money / have to give me the scream
| If the long one wins.
THE Pinkerton man was decent about ii,
and CHANGING about to IL his ubiquitous
| chief that everywhere Robert man, was
| rubbering, and finding, for wonder, that
| he wasn't, he allowed my friend to slip
1
at the prices.
THE good thing had alredy been whitfield
| down to 10 to l. and that, of course, accord
| ing to the instruction, let my friend out SO
| far as getting the other mans $500 down
| was concerned. But he liked the thing so
| much himself that he bet $500 of his own
money in two books On the trick at 10 10
| l. and he took it all straight. Then he put
| himself into the hands of the Pinkerton
| man to be conducted. with the touchy chap
with the corn, to the gate for fighting, ac-
| cording to the rule. They both bought
new badges and came right back, of course,
and my friend was back in time to see the
! good thing go through in a canter.
| We'll a lot of knockers saw him cashing
| in his So 600 after the race, and they magnl-
| fed the size of the wad about ten times.
| Nv friend returned the 500 TO his 1rlend
and explained to him how 1t happened that
| he had failed to make the bet.
| 1T didn't go, of course The Knockers
told the other man how they had seen my
| friend cashing in roll as big as noun
| tain hotel bedquilt, and the other man be
| lieyes to the present minute that my friend
got down the 500 straight at 100 to ana
| drilled him out OF a pat $4,000.
| up to this bend into the stretch I've
been talking about the inadvisabllity-to put
| il in that mild way-of betting money at
| race track for other men But accepting
| Woman's money to bet on horse race
| we'll for the pinhead who'll consent to do
| that the green ticket for the conk chateau.
| and let him be glad that he gets out OF IT