Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-24

stolidity. were at that same period viewed
by the up-the-line price-makers much In
the light OF variety stage Rubes. who
furnished easy picking. At that period OF
1t the reputation Of the southerners for
sending 'sleepers" to the post had dwindled
to nothing, and the smart fellows were sup
posed to be all northern men. The turf
supremacy had passed above the Mason
adroitness OF the turfmen themselves was
concerned. The new generation Of book
makers had fallen into the habit Of smiling
patronizingly at the southern turfman ana
"Ah. you want some of this 30 to I
against Southland eh?' the grinning book
maker would say. with overdone politeness.
to the lank man in sto' clo'es who passed
over his IS or $40 note on the southern
owned horse.
We'll. 1 couldn't really think Of It, kun
mel. But I'll lay you 100 to 1. That dor
And the lank man would gratefully accept
the sneerfngly hunched price. and walk
away from the layers stool with not the
faintest notion that he was being laughed
at.
But these funny boys began to get their
jolts from the Virginia and Maryland
horsemen eight or nine years ago, and
they've somehow forgotten to be funny
ever since. You never catch them now
adays launching the prices before the very
eyes of the men with the wide hats.
The first Jar. as many followers OF the
game here will remember, happened when
little two-year-old Boney Boy, son of the
old iron horse Bitten, stroled away from
his field at Benning spring meeting with
anything up to $50 to l chalked against
him.
Nobody who reads a green page will need
to be reminded that Boney Boy belonged to
Pa Bradley, one of the most character
istic of all Virginia trainers. When the
gelding went to the post that time all the
land-poor descendants of the cavaliers from
the Potomac to the James and beyond
know how good the son of Bradley's iron
horse was. Up to that time Bradley, to
the northerners. had been good deal of
joke on the legitimate turf. But just before
loading his string at his Virginia farm and
shipping them to Washington that spring
the old man let fall a word or two to a
crony.
"Ah reckon" he said, you'd bettuh pass
the word around 'mong the boys that Alive
got a sho likely little two-yeah-of in NAH
balm, named Boney Boy"
That hint from PA Bradley was enough
for the Virginians. The boys got it. They
tod the women folks of their families that
they had pressing business In washington,
donned their shelf apparel. and came to
the capital on every train. The joyous lay
ers never rubbed the price against the
Bitten gelding. On the contrary. many of
them chung to their habit. that time, or
launching the price every time man with
an unmistakable Virginia appearance swung
up. The race was foolish. Boney Boy walk
ed home pulled to the conformation OF
fried cake. There are plenty of chalkers
sui operating VINO SNAKE Their HtduS uolS-
fully yet over the memory of the hoarse
rebel yell that tore the Benning atmos-
phere when the despised little Virginia geld
ing came home in trudge.
The "McFonso Thing"
And, that same autumn, the McFonso
thing happened.
McFonso. nobody around here needs to be
told, was an old gelding that had been pull
ing buggy and blackboard around
Maryland farm. - He belonged to Frank
Keyes. McFonsO was Thoroughbred. but
he'd never been much, and SO. for his, 1t
had been the buggy and the blackboard,
with occasional hunting and going In those
tournaments wherein young southern laas
joust at iron rings for the honor of crown
ing their sweetheart queen of love and
beauty. When he was needed McFonso did
all sorts of other equine chores on the farm,
except blowing. That's one thing d south-
erner will not stand for-hitching thor
oughbred horse to a pillow. He'd let the
ground go untitled first.
Well, one day at hunt, this old NC
FoDson geldsng did come surprising things
in the way of taking his jumps and then
going on about his business. 1t was close
on to the Benning meeting, and Mr.. Reyes
had an idea He entered McFonso for
hurdle race, and then he mentioned. in
casual sort of way. to the Maryland cronies
he met that he reckoned McFonso wouldn't
be dead last in that race.
That, too, was enough. When McFonso
went to the post, Maryland. all the way
from Cape Charles to Cumberland, was
represented in force at Benning The to-
bacco crop had just been sold in the to-
bacco counties, and the quiet men from
those counties didn't come to Washington
just to look on. There was plenty of 40
to / against old McFonso The layers never
rubbed. for there were a lot Of mighty
shifty hurdlers, straight from the New
York tracks, in that race.
But it was the merest traipse for Nc
Fonso A gentleman who was with the
Massachusetts regiment that got itself at
tackled in passing through Baltimore at the
beginning of the civil war saw that race.
He said that the noise made by the thou
sands of furious Baltmoreans while that
riot was in progress wasn't a marker to the
stupendous, Brobdingnagian din that pene-
trated the circumambient from the Benning
grounds when old McFonso came home in
his boys lap that day, the boys toes tick
ling the old geding'S ears.
And those things have been happening
right along at Benning since. That's
why the bookmakers who lay prices at
Benning haye been chastened lot in the
presence of the Virginians and the Mary
landers for quite stretch of years now.
BILLY" Garth has done more than his
share toward Christening them. That's why
the word is going to be, tomorrow and for
the rest of the meeting, as it has been at
all of the meetIgs for a number of years
now: Stand clear for that Billy Garth
watch him."