The sun., 1907-03-03

Iohn Madden recently said to an inter-
viewer that no law ever can be framed
,hst will prevent one man from saying to
.rotber I'm bet YOU =" observed a turfman
uho has lust got hack from his winter
tr7yels.
that was real crisp and epgTammatio
~ John. but he ought to try IT.. That IN
hot Won thing mcan the kind of betting that
,hev had At Bennings last fall, when the
betting ring WAS switched into a memory
school for pIkers. plungers and bookmakers
alike. Us the kind of betting we may
have al the New Work tracks some day
~ these legislative knocks against racing
ba-eabouts succeed. It's the kind of betting
tha, was carried on at Hot Springs dur
Ing the few DAYS was there early in Feb
ryary. when the Arkansas Legislature,
s,zzling only a few miles away, was doing
things that kept the track people dancing
between the sod and the sky line.
Il believe that there was truce at Hot
Springs after had left there and that they
eot back 10 the old give 'em ticket way
of betting, but the system sure was one
nazev proposition during the part OF the
ueeS that tried to snag out expense money
At the Oaklawn track. 1t may be Heng-
Hsh and all that. but it sure is work. It's
exercise. It's all the medicine for torpid
liver or slothfh kidneys. What you win
YOU earn-if, and when, you get it.
You may not cover the entire Marathon
distance in the course Of an afternoons
4ehtlng for yours, but you'll qualify right
enough as a two gated two hoOfer-walker
and trotter. Youll be eligible for the
sprints, the heel and toe stun, and the
middle distance joys. More than that.
you'll be there with a trained vision thatn
make an eagle look like a ground owl.
Under the old system your problem at
n racetrack was to pick out meant horse.
and then to get something down on that
one. But the rigup under this peripatetic
system of betting gives you whole lot OF
additional problems. First, OF course,
you've got to dope out a maybe winner.
When you get this all settled in your mind
f, you begin 10 hunt up a layer. When you
DO finally succeed in catching an oblique
peek at his slate as he holds it half screened
By the flap Of his overcoat you find, OF
. course. that the price chalked against
your pick is pretty punk. You've heard
Ihat there's better in the ring than that.
$50 you scramble alongside about
ldozen OF the cowed looking chalkers, only
10 find that the price offered against your
mutt by the first layer is the best price.
: So you try to find him again-and Of course,
nudged around by the Pinks, he's been on
the 20 In the meantime.
Anyhow, you sift back to where you
Jaw him last, never minding the people
who stand on your feet or dig you in the
slate with their elbows as you go. You
and the place where that layer was, but
not him. He has gone away from there
to some elsewhither. You remember that
be had a reddish derby and black dyed
mustache, and you begin to rubber around
for those boolmarks. It's no good. You
zee forty men with those Identification
marks, but they're not layers. They're
Just other fellows hunting for bookmakers
sAnd finally when the plugs are on their
, way to the post and every chalker in the
ring has chopped the price Of the horse
you want TO play about four points you
make a despairing dive at the layer who
happens to be nearest you and you shove
your kale. That layer Is just rubbing
the price against your horse when you
reach him. and he chops It another point
or two right while you're looking at him,
but YOU can't help that. You take the
figure that you can get and then you back
out and have peek at the race, II IL not
already over. If your skate doesn't get any
thing, all the better for .you-.your bother
IA just so much reduced. All you've got
To do is 20 try again.
But il by some mistake the one you We
played does nail the race, your troubles
have only Just begun. You feel so tickled
over having snagged winner that when
YOU dart into the betting ring to collect |
YOU entirely forget for the moment that
the old betting system has been changed |
snd that the regime OF the peripatetlc or
Bedoujnstic bookmaker Is on. Having !
forgotten that much. you also find that |
vou' we forgotten something else-the loca- |
ron Of the bookie with whom you placed |
your bet
Nor that that kind Of remembering |
would do YOU any good. for the layers |
sre changing their locations constantly, |
hut still 1t isn't such "a bad idea to remem- |
ter where lie was when you handed hlm !
your money. IL only for the reason that /
that enables you to start out from that |
spot on pure guesswork and hunch, and |
drift with the tide. as probably the layer |
has drfted himself.
OF course, in your hurry to get your
bet down before the start YOU overlooked !
taking a peek al the chalker's name or
cHb name at the top of his slate But
YOU remember that your layer was man /
With hat and an overcoat-black bat,
maybe soft one, and n sort o brownish
overcoat. come to think Of it--yep, the
oyercoat was brownish-and so. plunging
into the ring currents. you drift around
Ike an abandoned sand barge looking for
. bookmakHT with hat and an overcoat
p WI haven kDI MUCH OF Az iued now lilhl
LAYERS map looked-you weren't looking
~ his face, but at bis prices, when you
made your bet. But, anyhow, you just
foat around. taking the chance that you
might accidentally remember him II you
s"e him You want to get a bet down on
me next race. but you don't feel like rubber
ing n the second races prices till you've
collected on the first.
After while, maybe. you catch sight
n q layer whose chart looks familiar to
y Ap nj thfs !
ger into line. wait I'LL five or six Buttinskis
vhu'vc never heard Of line get theirs,
Hnd then you call ~ your badge number
- The cashier. He uIi = his pencil up and
down his list Of badge numbers beneath
YOUR horses name, but there's nothing
coming OF for YOU
Not hin like that here. chops the cashier.
What Wis M name o the lellcr yoI made
your hct withg
The name? You don't know You
stand shown M.
oh. you dunno, hcyY gTiints the cashier
Well. that dunno stun " gil YOU helluva
Iot around r. cetrack nor Known who're
v'u TuaketyOur bets won't i,P
Then. feeling about forty eight inches
Ign, YOU drop ont of the p3von line ard
keep right on hunting 'tharo's no uae
lIlnE me FiorY, up, Maybe You find your
h0oknaker and then again maybe YOU
don't
'lt's the greet wav. that IN bet YOU
-"ste1 ~ getting mon into the habit of
t"lktng 10 them selves.
'N'v, what do yOu lke?' YOU ask soma
!! erd that you meet up with in the betting