The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-05
BADGE NUMBER BUGS GET BUSY
ENCOURAGED BY Niger MIKES
VICTORY AT 100 TO 4.
A Betting System That Succeeds All out Once
In Eight Million Observation-Disclosures
OF Figures en- which Men and Women
Pin Their Faith As TO tho Power OF Is.

OF Figures en- which Men and Women
Pin Their Faith las 10 the Power Of Is.
"A thing like that Niger Nike 100 to I
win starts oil a whole slew OF new badge
number bugs, as IL there weren't enough
Of them already" said a man who sells race
track badges on the race trains.
He referred to the hunch cleanup made
by Kenny, the Fcll street saloon keeper
Who owns Niger Mike, the 100 to 1 winner.
Niger Mi-e won on tho thirteenth day
OF tho Brighton meeting. Kenny remem
bered his before tho race, when he noticed
that his badge number was 1902. He
added these figures up and found that they
fed the bunch by making IL. Ee had ex'
actly $50 in his pocket, and he made four ST.
bets on his colt at 100 to I, yanl.ng dow
SIS, 200 on the badge number bunch.
THAT badge number bunch goes through
about once in eigh. million shots, went OF
the badge seller, but hundreds of track
visitors, some regulars, but mostly casuals
keep pounding away at 1t.
Il know one hope-nurser who's beer
chasing the badge number rainbow for
about seventeen years, though it has never
got him the price Of a car ride. His bug is
that any badge number that has a couple
OF ciphers in il ought to fetch him home the
carrots.
1T seems that back somewhere in the
seventies he connected with the double
zero, playing the wheel, and that gave him
the o,T-bunk smoke that the pair Of oiphers
we're meant to work for him for the rest OF
his life. There are days when l don't hap
pen to nave a two-cipher badge for him, and
/ pass him along to the other badge sellers,
II they haven't any, either, he takes his place
at one of the badge windows at the track
gate and stands by till n Of the badges
with the pair of ciphcrs in it shows up.
ALTHOUGH, as / say, he's never picked up
the price q a packet of Jersey garden seeds
with his two-cipher badges, he simply
won't go through the gate unless he gets
one. He's one Of these natural-born, you
lose pony players that drift on from season
to season, sloughing of their superf1uous
Junk, but never letting go.
They've got more ways Of playing the
badge numbers than a coon dog has wood
ticks. Some of them pull a long map over
a badge winding up with an odd figure
while, on the other side, there are slews Of
them who won't have an even figure for
any price. Then there are programme
dopists who, b efore starting for the track
determine to play in every race a horse
with a certain number on the card-No. 4
or IL, or Q, as the case may be. Then they'll
poster the badge seller to dig for a badge
that foots up the lucky number hat they've
picked for the day.
'One man who did this at the spring
meeting at Belmont had to wait till the
second race was about due before he could
snag out a badge footing up his days lucky
number-with the copper on, that is to
say-and then he raced into the ring tc
get his bet down on No. ft-his badge mum
Der was 10, 2e2, which footed up his hasheesh
figure. Ill.,. ,uh,. ~ - hi, hoot n
time 10 get his bet down, and No. II on
the programme, a 90 to 1 shot, came home
with the boy looking back and grinnlng;
He was the sorest butcher for . couple Of
weeks that ever got a thumb mixed up
with a soup bone. but he's still playing his
system and waiting for another ohanoe
Some OF these badge bugs Insist upon
getting numbers that foot up their age
7 had the 5000 to $1,000 layout: OF badges
the other day, and observing this . glinty
eyed little man nudged along to me In the
car aisle and offered me q dollar bonus II
I'd sort 'em over and slip him badge No,
s.ess; ,,u~,
the little man told me, and the four mines
foot UP my age, SO, and II I don't have to
charter d furniture van to bring homo the
dust to-day I'm O smudge.'
IF he had to charter any van he didnt
ride home In It, for he was In the same Cal
with me on the i~n-train, with q mug on
him as long as an ironing board,
sWe have all kinds Of trouble getting rid
Of badges with the figures . and 8 u q,