Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-27
Merchant Takes the Bets and Doctors
Account Book.
HER LOSSES ADDED TO ITEMS
Extraordinary Charges for Meat Thus
Accounted for in Many Instances
Where Habit Exists.

! Accounted for in Many Instances
Where Habit Exists.
Through this mans thoughtlessness he
| reluctantly admits it - his wife acquired
what the dead-games picturesque!y cah'thc
| horse bug" He had the equinus bug"us.s
himself pretty badly a couple of years ago,
! and while in that fevered state he took his
/ wife to the Bcnning track quite a number
| of times. Not only that, but he would bet
a dollar for her occasionally. one me.:o-
rable afternoon one OF these dollars that he
| bet for his wife bought home TIN other
+, dollars for her. And that settled it. She
| had picked the o0to-1 shot herself,
understand That is 10 say, the jockeys
| colors were made up mainly of the sweetest
| shade of Cerise You ever -aw, and the
! jockey himself had little short legs that
stuck out so cunnin'. and didn't he lave the
| dearest little tallowy spitiock sticking out
| from beneath the peak of his cap? There
| fore. how could the horse ridden by that
| jockey lose? W ell, he couldn't lose Iie
couldn't lose that one day that is. md
he brought home to this mans wife 50
! for that $ invested by her husband on her
account. Which. let it be repeated was
about suficency. She acquired an acute
| case of the horse bug.
| And why not? Wasn't It just the easiest
| thing you ever saw or heard of in all youi
| born days, my dear? Just think Of it $50
| for 81. and you may believe it or not. but
l hope l may never move rom this spot,
! deed do, if tina. horse did not seem to be
| just walking at the finish of the race--and
| $50 for just one. Why. how could there be
any easier or more idioticaliy simple way
| of getting rich, my dear? All you've got
| to do is TO just pick out some horse tnat
| you like the looks of-or you can often tell
| by the looks of the boy that's riding a
horse. really you can, my deaI--and then you
| just get somebody to bet dollar on that
| one for you. and 1t wins. and then who
| ever has bet your dollar for you fetches
| you back twenty, or thirty, or forty, or
even. fifty dollars for that one dollar-didn't
l see a woman in the stand win $50 for
| only one the other day? And and so
| on That's how bad she had the horse bug.
| She has it yet. 1t is an admitted psyche
| logical fact that, once a Woman piunges
| into the tempestuous tide OF chance. she
| stays with 1t a whole lot longer than the
average man. And so this mans wife has
the horse bug yet. although she no longer
plays them.
He had been suspecting 1t for a long time
The other day he verified his suspicion.
He was glancing over the meat market
| account book-his wife does her marketing
| at one of the minor markets.
| Suddenly he began to wriggie In his chair.
! Hin, my DEAR, no sal, to his wife-she
was pretending to be profoundly immersed
| In the evening paper. but there was a sort
| was twitching nervously-"I say, that was
pretty stiff lot OF lamb chops had for
| dinner evening before last WASH 1t? Dol
| lar and thirty cents worth. Mistake isn't
| it: Must be. / remember l only ate q
| couple of the chops, and you never eat more
than one. Dollar and quarter for three
lamb chops? Whew!'
| Finds Another Item.
| But his wife pretended that she heard the
fox terrier pup scratching on the front door
to be let In Just then and she rose some
| what hurriedly to answer the call Of the
| mutt When she returned he was doing
some whistling over another item in the
meat market book.
"By heck, my dear" he said to her, "thls
| is going some! Three dollars for that little
| roast Of beef we had for dinner last Sun
| day? Say. this can't be the right book!
| The man must have given you somebody
| else's book by mistake-this book must be-
| long to some family with fourteen people to
! feed. But. no. here's my name on 1t.
Three dollars for that little roast, hey?
| Why. say. look a-here. I'm not going to
stand for this! Is that market open now?
! Well. I'm going right over there and have
a little personally conducted talk with that
fat-head Of butcher-the gall Of him-and
find out what the dickens he What's
that, my dear? Say whatchoo cryin
! about? Hey? What On, that's it, hey?
| You did! Uh-huh- land so on and so on
| Business of the man soothing and forgiv-
Ing his wife upon her promise not to play
| EN- any more
| For. when he started up to rush out to in
| terview the meat market man. she. weeping
| most distressfully grabbed hold of him and
| told him all about 1t. There was no way
! out. She had to.
meat market mans handbook. that's ALL
| and having her losses tackled on to the meat
account. She told him all about it. between
gulps Of misery. She'd been led into 1t by
| nf IN
| win, and so she thought she'd try-she
meant to surprise him by winning enough
| for their summer vacation. she said. miser-
ably-but everything had gone wrong, and
| the mean old things hadn't told her the
| right ones to play. and-and-oh, she was
| so wretched, deed she vas that she didn't
| care whether she lived or died and she
wished she was over in Oak Hill. deed she
| did-and all like that, to the mans intense
| establishment.
| To his credit be it said he was there with
| the compassion which the normal man
should feel for a woman in such a situation,
| and he told her it all right. and to for
! get it. And he saw to 1t that the meat
! market man who made the handbook didn't
| get any more of his money for meat or for
| the amplifcation of his handbook bank
| roll.
| Invention? Exaggeration?
| Not Fiction, But Fact.
| Don't ever believe that it is either! 1t is
a literal and verbatim portrayal of a thing
that actually happened And the same thing
| has happened in many a Washington home
any time these past three or four years.
| The difference has been, in some of these
| cases. let it be noted. that some of the
! homes have been broken up.
For number of years there have been
| scores, if not hundreds. of Washington
| housewives who have been sloughing off
| the household money in these market stall
| handbooks. The regular handbook men who
| take mems money and who have their run
| ners know this full well. does about
| every other intelligent man who keeps an
| eye around on things and knows of the lit
| tie inside tricks that are being pulled off in
| his town from time to time.
| The regular handbook men have been sore
| about this market house handbooking, with
! the feminine play, for long. long time
| Sore because they like to have that money
! themselves, and don't get 1t. The regular
| handbook men hate to such nice. soft
| easy change as the women toss away to the
! market stall handbookers get away from
| them. 1t makes them real peevish, so IL
| does and you ought to hear one of the reg
! ular handbookers Eliminating against these
| market house makers of handbooks! You
| really think that the marketnen with the