Evening star., 1907-05-26
By Clarence L. Cullen.

IF you're in any wise welded to the SIM
pie life you wouldn't care to play the horses
for steady thing in the pool rooms Of
Goldfield," observed Washington follower
of the thoroughbred game who recently re-
turned from the Pacific coast, where he
divided the winter racing season between
the San Francisco and Los Angeles tracks.
They take the thing heap too earnestly
and enthusiastically in those Goldheld
rooms to make 1t comfortable for quiet
folks. When anything they like and play
comes home on the mouth iron Things nap
pen that make a tenderfoot sit up and take
notice or else stretch nlmseH Hat oh Tie
floor In panic. ,
"On my hike back this way about month
ago 1 dropped off at Goldheld to have
peek at the camp, and l blew into one or
the Goldfield rooms-the main one or the
camp-iust to see how the boys out that
way went at it. It was chiefly pool room'
but you could get anything else that you
wanted in a gambling way, from mustang
to keno and from monte to faro bank II
vou mt one or two good ones over on the
horse blackboard there isn't the ieaSt ne,
cessity in life for you to quit q Goiohelo
pool room with any money on you. You can
trim yourself at the other games ~ltnout q q
narticle of bother, and 1t looked to me as II
II was considered bad form for ANYBODY 10
leave the big betting dump with any 0I tile
coin of the proprietors thereof. there
weren't any intermissions in this room
while the horse players waited for the re-
suits of the races to come In alter eettins
their bets down. They'd buy ticket on tne
horse they'd picked and then theyd rope
over to one of the stud or faro ther or anu a
twist at the wheel or the keno layout untll
thew heard the operator singing out the
race they were interested In, Wnen they u u
scamper back to the horsepiayins t .eaarol eso %
nher's fateful words. They don ike walt
ing for things out in that rarihed atmos-
nhere They've got to have action every
minute. and they get IT.
Celebrating Discovery Day.
81 broke into this big Goldf1eld room some
+,,oa before the first San Francisco race
was due, and l found that the whole bunch
there were hundreds of them for the
miners were celebrating Discovery day
had It fore-rigged and pre-doped that there
was going to be nothing to that first race
but that ancient Angora Head Dance. No'
nerceiying how they could figure thisItor
/ had seen Head Dance Try 10 run oii,S
couple of weeks before at the oaklano
track-I made some inquiry of the barkeep:
".Where did they all nail this HEAD
Dance crab for such guaranteed spe-
cal?' I asked the mixer; i sd" .iia' for.- ore
| clompins around the Oakland path 1ort-
nipht or so ago and he's camel In the
| emeritus class. He's at least 2o6 years
| of age. he's got knobs on all four or MS
|
| runs like a pup sea lion nudging himself
| over lava rocks. Where did the gang get
| the string that one?
| .Hunch thing. replied the mixer. "A
! heap-much Shoshone Indian with souse
| On, named Dancing Head. broke into the
| canp Yesterday and cleaned up at one OF
| the stud games here for 5000 On that
| line of dope this Head Dance thing won't
| know: how to lose. That's the way the
| boys have got 1t smoked, anyhow, and sc
| what's the use!
| .'Wen. / quit fooling with the hunch
| stuff a long time ago, after it had got me
| down to cob pipes and fertilizer smoking
| tobacco, but all the same l watched the
| outcome of this Goldfield hunch with g
| heaD of interest. 1t looked to me like a
! thing to copper and so I stuck in few
| beans on the favorite in the race, thing
| called Grass Cutter that I'd seen do pretty
| we'll at the Ascot track in Los Angeles
| The Godfield hunch on the plug with the
| name that sounded like that of the souseC
| Shoshone Indian didn't pick me up and rur
| off with me even when Head Dances price
| me in at so, 90 and 10.
| The Only Wise One.
| "An the same, l was the only man in the
| vast room that didn't fall for the hunch
| and that's why l sat away back in real