Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-16
LOST FORTUNE

Zone day. nine years ago, I was set back
$4,000 just as easy as whistling through
your teeth by a couple of as foolish cir
cumstances. viewed from betting mans
angle, as you ever heard off, said Clint De
Witt. the horseman. who got In for the Ben
ming meeting a few days ago.
II was fooling around the New York
tracks that year. There was a tfiple-tined
goat named Rappahannock due to smelt
down lot Of long-over-due ore for his peo-
pie, and they passed the word of 1t along
to me- They were people who wouldn't bet
the sun was down at II O'Clock of a star
less night without having special informa-
ton to back them up and SO l knew that
II the Rappahannock angora lived from
barrier to wire he was going to come pretty
close to packing home the eoonsk!ns. Two
days before the melon was to be sliced l
got sick and had to 60 to bed. On the day
before the good thing was to be uncovered
knew that there would be no chance OF
my making the track and so l telephoned
to young friend of mine. regular at the
tracks, to dig me up at my rooms.
He got around, and 1 handed him the
thousand I was saving for the Rappahan-
mock thing, and told him to get 1t down on
the following day at the best Rappahan-
fectly trustworthy young fellow, and
would have had no hesitation in making
him the custodian of my whole bank ron
II I'd cared to bet that much. At O'Clock
on the next afternoon. while was lying on
a lounge and wondering what the thorough
bred game was coming to when the most
conservative men In racing counted morse
like Rappahannock good thing on that
particular day, my phone bell tinkied. My
young friend with my Rappahannock COM
mission was the ringer.
Hey. pal.' he shouted at me over the
wire.- the sawbones has just rung me up.
how
guess 1 amt hit or nothin' at this father
of-a-family gag"
MY young friend had only entered upon
the holy state of matrimony about year
before and that wire glee OF his was
only natural.
well. that let's you out Of going to the
track today. hey?' l said to him after few
congratulatory cracks.
Track! he bawled. What track? say.
I'm going to hustle uptown in On airship
to take peek at that twelve-pound piano
mover.
Jh-huh" said I: but wait a minute
don't ring off yet Dye remember an ami
mated piece of horse glue named Kappa
hammock? Recall that we had bit OF
conversation about that one last evening at
my roomse'
Il could hear him slapping his thigh
through the phone.
''B jee, forgot all about that he yelled
back. Never would have remembered 1t
If you hadn't mentioned 1t. Wait a min
ute. Let see. 1neTe 5 ITO Cidhtc ioi hiC
to make the track. of course-Ive just
nachully got to have a personally conduct
ed view of that twelve-pound hod-carrler
within the next three-quarters OF an hour
or bust But. say. I'll just hustle over to
the bridge and I'll be able to nail some pal
who'll be able to get your thousand down
all pat
"If he'd been able to see me at that. he'd
have observed that l looked chopfallen-
I've never known one Of these third-hand
bets to grease through yet without some
kind of hitch.
But there was no other way cut 1t was
too late then for me to call up some other
friend bound out for the track. and as near
as l knew anything l knew that Kappa
hammock was just as good as In.
"'All right l 'phoned back to my young
friend with the new twelve-pounder. but
say, don't, In that swelled-up state of
yours, hand the thousand over to the first
bridge newsboy you meet. Give 1T to some
grown-up fellow that both of US know, If
you can land one
"'Oh, I'll connect with the right kind
he replied. and then he rang off to run over
the Rarpahannock thousand to before chas-
ing uptown to see his baby. quarter of
an hour later he called me up again.
Its all right he said to me. I slip
naming racing man that knew we'll and
a perfectly responsible chap. He'll get 1t
down all right. Sorry, old man, I couldn't
have attended to 1t myself; as per schedule.
make a prize fighter of him and the
rest was incoherent.
Il felt pretty good over the fact that my
commission had been entrusted to such
solid chap as the one my young friend had
caught at the bridge. and all that l had to
do then was to wait for the word that
Rappahannock had waltzed home. 1 got
that word four minutes after the race.
My janitor slipped around to a pool room
at post time for me and brought me back
the result. which was that Rappahannock
had slid home with an average of IL to l
against his chalk: For a couple Of hours
my little bunk of sickness seemed pretty
soft to me. Then, of a sudden, it became
as knobby as If it had been filled with shin
evening papers. On the first page Of sew
erai of them was an account of a rough
house on Brooklyn elevated train between
guard and a well-known racing man.
named Jimmy So-and-So. The guard had
attempted to mix it with Mr.. James So-and-
SO, because the latter had accidentally trod
upon his. the guards. foot. In hustling to
board the car. and my friend James had
merely tossed the guard over the gate lat
tice work and onto the downtown track,
that's ALL Wherefore, the well-known racing
man had been pinched, all of this occur
ring at quarter before o'clock in the
afternoon. / was still reading the story
when the well-known racing man walked
in upon me, an expression of the deepest
gloom upon his face. He had just been
bailed out Of the Brooklyn station where
he had been taken on the charge OF assault
ing the elevated guard. and he walked
over to my lounge and slipped me my 81, 900
note.
I'm hep I told him. Just been read
ing about it.. and pointed to the stories.
He'd tried to get the police-station peo-
pie let him telephone the bet down to
bookmaker while he was waiting to be
bailed out, but the desk sergeant couldn't
see it; and so I was just $4,000 to the
worse that time through little brace of
uppercuts that couldn't have been foreseen
or forestalled.''
Compulsory Voting.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.