Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-15
How q Department Official Began
Housekeeping.
STEVE L'HOMMEDIEU's II
Persistent Run Of Bad Luck Broken
at Last-All Night Session
Over Cards.

| You can't keep Q squirrei on '"o
| ground
Steve LHommedieu invented this phrase
| with himself in mind. The phrase hts him
| as $7.9s blue serge suit fits it's wearer ar
| ter its first christening in q shower. This
mention Of clothes fetches to the surface
| of recollection the fact that when l. HON.
medieu gave utterance to that remark about
the pertinacious arborealness of the squir-
| rel-meaning himself-he was wearing
| about the streets Of Washington a suit OF
clothes that you wouldn't wear to a
chicken fight, About q week later HON
medieu ordered eighteen suits Of clothes.
all at once. from an street tailor. and
paid for them in advance out of q roll that
looked like Sunday edition wrapped up
| for mailing. Thus he demonstrated-as no
has often demonstrated 1t since-the truth
OF the adage OF his own manufacture
You can't keep a squirrel on the ground"
Recent public and private advices convey
the information that L'Eommedieu relieved
the Covington poolrooms Of $4,000 a day
for six days running during the first week
IN June-which isn't any bad blackboard
batting average when due consideration is
given to the multitudinous difficulties in
VOWED in picking profitable winners.
l. Hommedleu may retain this, little piece
he may not have any part of it at this
moment of writing. 1t Is his custom to
oscillate between sybaritic affluence and
complete bustedness. He never heard Of
the middle path when 1t comes to money.
When 1 saw him in Chicago six months
ago he had just sold his two imported au-
tomobiles for song. to give himself fresh
start. And here he is again with the six
figure currency. Verify. squirrel is no
more to be kept on the ground than a
beaver Is to be held up a tree
An officials Story.
Tharpa a In ocI,j
mentions L'Hommedieu's name but to
plug for him." which is no more than
right. considering the story. This man is
now one of the sedate ones-a departmental
official, in fact; not government Clerk
but departmental official The distinction
Is noted merely to show that the sedate-
ness OF his later years have been rewarded
IT was when he was just government clerk
that he was reduced to the smoking of
punkish tobacco in unsavory dhudeens
through his addiction, strictly as a piker,"
as he himself confesses, to the horse game
he told me couple Of days ago how glad
he was to hear that Steve L'Hommedieu
was hitting in the six-figure mark again
Because, went on this sedate depart
mental official who Is now all for the sim
pie life and the training Of the rose bushes
in his back yard. "LHommedieu gave me
my first start in housekeeping here in
Washington lot of years ago Steve lived
In Washington at that time, because he
found 1t warmer here during the hard win
ters than In some other places, and again
because there used to be summer racing
here. Although he was only a plunger in
embryo then, even at that stage Of 1t he
had the natural-born plungers nerve. He
never had drop Of the piker fluid in him.
whereas was born a piker
u mad just got hold of a government Job
and when they started to race at the St
Asaph track took my annual leave in
halliday pieces of afternoons, with the
nebulous and wholly visionary idea of run
ming a. shoestring into Shoe and Leather
National Bank. I had often met Steve
L.Hommedieu around town. resumed my
acquaintarceship with him. at the ST. Asaph
track. My government pay stood at the
300 per-arnum notch then. Ny wife and
were living in dingy Capitol Hill board
ing house. and by the time I got through
paying the board and washing and things
what was left of my semi-monthly enyel-
opes was mere metallic junk. All the same
by the time the st. Asaph meeting was one
week old 1 was just 5000 to the good-all
gained by close-to-the-surcingle piking.
flashed that immense roll-to NEON Steve
on the ride In from the track one afternoon.
The Piker Gloated.
ct guess I haven't done anything to
them or anything like that said to Steve.
gioatingly. pinching the bundle to see il 1t
was all there. And they're never, never.
never going to feel the heft of this wad
keeping with this wealth. No more board
ing house grub for mine
L'Hommedfe'I took the bundle out of
my hand. shuffied 1t. hefted 1t. handed 1t
back to me and shook his head discour-
agingly:
Nothing like enough of it he said.
That piece Of change might set you up
in housekeeping in Manayunk or Ipswich
or Scltuate. but it'll never do in Wash
fngton Got to buy the furniture on the
excitement plan. haven't your
Sure thing told him. But mostly
everybody does that here
that shoemaker's bankroll along to a
thousand for you tomorrow L'Iomme-
dieu put in. while was still wabblIng
Dye honest think 1t could be doney
I asked him, hesitatingly.
In a smoke was his ofrhand reply.
and l fell for the temptation with nary
another hutter. I had all Of the follow
ing day on. and 1 was scheduled to go
ooWn town In the morning with my wife
to start In picking out kitchen chairs
egg heaters. hash grinders and other
housekeeping bijouterie. The little wife
didn't know that had all of that 5000
wad. but had given her to understand
In general sort of way. a couple of
days before. that I had snagged out
enough to make beginning toward the
housekeeping scheme. and she was tic
Killed. almost foolish over the prospect Of
beginning to purchase the housekeeping
truck SO soon. But when the time came
10 START Oh tue Duying expedition i had
to sidestep the plan. for 1 wanted to
keep the 5000 intact SO as to run II into
a thousand. according to LHommedieu's
captivating way Of expressing t. NV
wife looked me over pretty suspic,ously
when l tagged the purchasing expedi-
ton WhenxI had made the gate
called back to her that she could ex-
pect me when she saw me. and then
raced for 1t. 1 met EHommedieu and
we went over to st. Asaph together.
A Small Field.
An epidemic Of scratching had reduced
the field in the first race to two horses
and the dope made one Of the two so much
better than the other that the bookies
chalked up the outclassing one at l to Is
and the other one at II to /.
Shove In fifty on the long one LHom-
medieu coolly advised me- There never
were two selling platers that figured so far
apart as that chalk indicates since the
world began Anyhow. this is ST Asaph. in
Virginia I'm going to tap myself on the
dozen-to-one plug, seeing that there's AT
least one chance in few that the 1 to IL
thing will fall over his feet
And he did tap himself on the II to 1
shot in the two-horse race. all right saw
him put his $40. all he had, down getting a
$3.50 to $40 ticket. No piker would ever