Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-08
IN THE BETTING RING

fields OF the New York race tracks. digging
up sundry and divers angels to furnish
the bank rolls, lmped back to town the
other night. all mall over. OF course they
made him tell them all about it.
well. I'm through with the angel stuff.
anyhow" was the way he began 1t. I'm
not shopping around for any more feather-
moulters. If ever go on the block again
It's going to be with a personally conducted
bank wad. or not at all.
The last angel had-this was at the
Belmont track-was a German baker
snagged out of a little cookie dump over
on the East Side Of New York. That
sauarehead was the craxiest man to get
rich in the course Of one fast-fying spring
afternoon that 1 ever saw. His dope nao
| it that the field book was to make 1or MN
couldn't lose. that everything came IN
and that nothing went out. Id already
had three angels since the opening or the
New York racing season. and was mar.
ness-sore from their kind OF driVhs but
this squarehead's confidence was 30 vast
that 1 took him to the rear room OF
pinochle plant and spent two hours IN tell
| ing him about the different kinds OF things
that could and might happen 10 any klilo
of bank-rol in the cheap heid II thimss
didn't take the correct drift. He whitfield
me.
"'Dots all rigid. vot you say he hand
ed me- but ids de only way to maig de
jmoney-pookmaigin'.
Sure. if YOU get break I put In.
But are you there with the spine to stand
for a wipe-out if the wise ones happen TO
nail us with the get-by goods?'
'"'AT pookmaigers is rich. he told me.
disreeardine my question, 'und If DER nod
ids DER own fault. You go on. We can
lose
so what was the use? 1 drilled from
the pinochle plant with the feeling that 1t
would take me a thousand years to con-
vince that dough-mixer that bookmakers
ever have to stand for wallop. But de-
cided to take a chance with his Wad
ut was at Belmont, as I said. that l
went on with this ones bread-and-bun vel
vet The very first race that l chalked on
had seven horses in 1t, and saw what L
was up against as soon as l stuck the
slate up. My baker angel sat behind me
on his high stool and groaned in my ear
over every greasy dollar bet that took In
on any OF the seven. He was AFRAID OF the
whole seven. But it fell our way, two OF
the NUTS that we had practically clean
sheets on swinging home one-two. and the
book won $500 to the jog. The square,
head was up among the fish-clouds at that
I'm not afraid vas mistaig.' he told
me enthusiastically. vas mooch mlsta1g.
We now qvt for de day. nod?'
THAT got laugh out of me. of course.
Quit for the day after beating the first
race. with five other things yet to be run
off, each of them full Of contenders. and
get the boot from the rest Of the gang for
dropping out after the first race? l had to
argue my baker angel out Of 1t, though.
for the $500 velvet looked as big as bat
tleship in dry dock to him.
"On the second race we dropped $500,
and my bun-making angel sweated out
like dope nag that's run away six miles
the wrong way of the track. He was In
such lather over the loss following the
win that had again to listen to his en-
treaties that we quit for the day with the
500 velvet, and l got the funny yelp from
all the rest of the blockers when 1 climbed
do, ,,,1 1aI for
when 1 met him In the cheap field the
next day he was in a foam Of before-taking
victory. I herded him into a corner and
asked him what for. Well. he been tipped
lob and a dead one, even with Miller up.
Oh. yes. he'd got it right. too-straisht as
| an oil pipeline.
taig Zambesi. Poof! Vat name to abuse
horse nit Zambesi! We lay against
him. nod? We maig tousands. yes"
"Well, Zambesi looked like pipesky win
ner to me. l nailed my man to a stanchion
and tried for half an hour to gimiet 1t into
him that the bookmaker who lay against
Zambesi in that first race would be a pop
py-eater of the rankest kind. but he was
there with the pig head. and couldn't get
by with the argument
'Zambesi can't VIM was his steady
comeback. We lay against him. We lay
two points de best. We double de roll on de
first race. You taig it from me. Pc good.
know Something's
@''When I told him felt heap like not
going on the block at all under those fool
circumstances he was there with the Salve,
and so. seeing the useIessness of arguing
the point with him, l went on and. when
the others were laying to l and to .
against Zambesi. 1 was giving 'em 6. 2 and
even across the board.
"'Come on, poys, NIT dat Zambesi
money my baker angel was yelling at
'em as they swung by Four Is de price
eferywheres but here. unit am Citing siggs
Of n a hos al
store: come unit puy him.
"Oh, he was there with the nerve. all
right; game. that is to say, while the money
came swirling in on Zambesi at the hunched
price-and the boys sure did gnaw on the
price like alley dogs glomming over old
bones But when Zambesi. under Walter
Miler's guidance. went away from his field
in three hops, and came home alone, with
his mouth wide enough open to hold up
ended corncob. and our book was welted to
the dirge of $1,GoO the gameness dropped
out of my dough-mixer with every jump
Zambesi made toward the wire, and by the
time the finish line was crossed 1 had an
angel alongside of me whose big, globular
tears were scalding the grass of the lawn
like so much hot. soap dishwater: He slip
ped me the wall that he'd been skinned. l
had all l could do then to keep from put
ting a knee In the small of his back and
nudging him to a paddock watering trough
and sousing him In 1t. but Just quit IN
stead. and he went back to Avenue A on
the East Side, still weeping profuSely, and
told all of his friends that he'd fallen into
the hands of second-story man and all
around crook and been frisked.
previous to getting him. though, I'd
had three other angels. The first one 1 got
hold of. to start the Aqueduct meeting with,
was rum-mill keeper who had the lay-it
off bug bad. He had about as much nerve
as young robin in a den of rattlesnakes.
He'd break out into a cold, clammy sweat
every time he took peek at the sheet, and
then he'd insist upon all of the money that
had been hauled in on the three or four
contenders being laid Off in other books.
always at shorter prices than the money
had been taken in at. That's just like I'M
peeing the papers from the roll and Slip
ping it to passers-by, and in about a week
the saloonkeeper angel was so far in the
rear of the parade that there was only one
thing for him to do, and that was to go
tearing around and tell everybody that he'd
fallen into the hands of a knockout man
who'd weeded him of all the plush he'd
been laying up for years.
My next angel was q plumber with a
dump in Harlem. He was so suspicious
that every time l visited his plumbing plant
he kept a clase eye on me for fear that I'd
hide some of the gas pipe lying around I'M
der my coat and sneak out with it. I toll
Grated that one for six days and won some
thing like $1,000 for him, but when he init
mated that l was launching prices on things
hot 7 tod pfa5a toe ha