The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-20
rust off their shoveIs because they

rust off their shove1s because they
don't see me about
Jimmie, there's a man down in
Kentucky who loves the dear people
| ana caters to them. He invented the
game called policy He understands
human nature enough to know that
every man living wants to bet on a
scheme of some kind. It's horse rae
| ing that most of us bet on, and next
to that comes gambling in stocks We
put up our good cash, Jimmie-we
put up our good cash expecting to
! win, and-and-''
"And we don't win"
| You've struck the spike on the
head, Jimmie. It's the other Teller
that wins, and do you know that our
losing is responsible for nine-tenths Of
the crimes committed in the land? Ye
| hear that we have lost fifty dollars in
stead of winning five hundred, and
we go out and commit burglary and
arson and murder to get even. This
gentleman down in Kentucky under
stood that for years before he invent
ed his little game. He wanted to get
something that the people could win
on every time and save them from
crime, and he's finally hit it, It's the
game called policy"
I rose up and found a Dago looking
at public clock and locked him half
an hour, and sat down again as Larry
continued:
tits played with numbers. You drop
into ciger store and bet that the
kind-heartad gent down in Kentucky
will draw q certain number out of his
hat that day. In order that the wildly
and the orphan shan't get left they can
bet as low as nickle and win enough
to keep 'em in luxury for a week If
any one is feeling particularly happy
and patriotic and wants to show his
confidence in and gratitude for the geat
in Kentucky. he can play a gig and
saddle
ST don't quite understand it myself.
Jimmie but If you win you can sit down
to dinner in the Waldorf and order
your fodder like a prince. IF you lose
toes for three days to make good. The
whole thing is on the square. The man
who is behind in his house rent wins
the man with the consumption wins
the WILDLY who hasn't any shoes wins,
and the orphan can buy peaches at five
cents apiece Only the kind-hearted
gentleman down in Kentucky loses.
Some of the police captains have made
brownstone mansions out of it in few
years."
And the nub of the thing?' I asks
as I yells at the whole gang in the
cellar.
You and me are to provide places
here in the city where the dear people
can come and leave their money and
draw their winnings. We get a per
cent. We make ten thousand year
apiece and have the satisfaction of
knowing that we are enshrined in the
hearts of the public. The Kentucky
gent Is enshrined first, but we are a
close second. We can die when our
time comes and know that the world is
better for our having lived. You hand
me your share and trust things to me,
and you can keep right on driving your
Dago gang"
Three days later 1 was Larry's silent
partner. and we were assisting the
good man on the other side of the Ohio
river to distribute his millions. 1t has
been charged by the press obliged my
Dagoes to gig and saddle every day in
the year, and that I encouraged little
children to invest and widdys to leave
their homework undone. With death
looking me in the face deny it. I had
been in the business for five years, and
had made Is thousand dollars from it,
when a policeman who hadn't got his
whack squealed and got the papers and
the courts to pronounce it a skin game.
1t was then that I learned that one