Evening star., 1907-05-26

rocker and waited for the explosion of the
smile.
THE whole swaying crowd srape-vined
and leg-locked each other in struggling up
10 the t1cket-issuing counters to push in
their Head Dance change, so that after
the proprietor of the room had to close the
betting on the Head Dance thing, although
there had been no flashes from the track,
and the price had remained stationary.
when the proprietor caused Head Dance
to be rubbed off the board by closing the
betting on the race he stood to get the
dent -that-won't 't-fll-out. The gang loudly
DENOUNCED his refusal to take any more
nsher, put he stood pat on that. and al
lowed their beefing to go for the end book
Wen. the operator finally got them off,
and 1t looked sad for the hunch and tidy
Tor my little piece of backsheesh right into
the stretch. where my skate, Grass Cutter,
was leading by two lengths, with two of the
other short-pr1ced ones-and nix the men
ton of Head Dance-close up.
Head Dance wins by q facet yelped
the operator at the finish, and then 1 saw
the funniest manifestation Of gloatfulness
that ever nudged before my vision in a
pool room. I'd heard of such a thing be-
ing done in Butte rooms on certain enthu-
siastic occasions when Montana Mark
Days horse had won, but I'd never taken
much stock In the stories. But here I was
key-Right-There and saw 1t with nv own
Wicks.
"The operator ran heavy ring of chalk
around the name of Head Dance on the big
blackboard: Those yipping Goldfield hunch-
lists figured that they might as we'll con-
firm the race themselves, without waiting
for the official confirmation from the track.
80 one of them, with an Ogalalla
yee-ow of JOY, pulled his gun and planted
a ball right over the top Of the H in Head
Dances name as 1t was halk-printed on
the blackboard.
Gun Confirmation.
Then about dozen and a half of the
other delirious Head Dance players followed
suit. They blazed away at the board like a
bunch or schutzenfest marksmen enjoying
themselves at a Teutonic picnic and they
were there with their shooting wicks, at
that When they got through there was
as neat and well-drawn a ring of bullet
holes around the name Of Head Dance as
the boardmarker had drawn with his piece
of chalk. The big room smelt like an un-
ventilated shooting gallery for the remain
der of the afternoon. The proprietor of
the room didn't make the least mutter over
the messing up of his blackboard either,
but took the boys gun confirmation as a
matter Of course, although he, of course,
waited for the official confirmatio from
the San Francisco track before paying of
on the race. l asked the boss of the room
if that was any real frequent kind of a
way of confirming a race on the part OF
the Goldtield poaJ players, and he said that
1t wasn't exactly usual, but that 1t hap
pened once in while on holidays, and he
reminded me that that was holiday Dis
covery day But it sounded like the nerv-
Gus music to me, and while it was going on
had to take a good grab on myself OF
I'd have gone through one of the windows
taking sash and all, just for the sake of the
| quiet life to be found elsewhere.
Later on, toward the close of the after.
Moons play in that immense room of haz-
| ard l saw little thing which caused me
| to reflect that a tout in a Goldield room
needs to have a lot more nerve than dope
| books if he expects to get by with his life
The Chance a Tout Took.
1.-THE only tout in the room was carroty-
| headed, freckle-faced chap who appeared
| to be stranger to ali hands-I judged that
| from the sardonic way they all gazed at
| him out of the slants of their eyes when
| he tackled them He finally succeeded In
getting about half dozen of them to fall
| for his frantic belief that the old horse
| Martinmas was scheduled to win the last
race on the days card at Oakland. He was
an insinuating. eloquent kind of a pleader
! and. besides that, he was Woe-begone
| poor devil, minus an overcoat. and with
red bandana around his neck. He looked
| like somebody that had been ditched in the
. camp on his way to some place else: he