Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-26

| have to go to work pretty soon.
A little while ago. by the way, met q
| bookmaker who HAS gone to work. he
| is well known in Washington. too. He
| never was one of the real big store oper-
| ators. but he'd f1ivved around on the PACK
| line for a good many years. and mao
| too. off and on, for nearly thirty years.
| When the skds were put under the game
| last year this chalker was minus bank
| roll. and he was pretty sick OF the VI
cissitudes of the game, anyhow: and SO
he started i'm to prove himself the one
| big exception to the rule that once you re
! a racing bug you never get over II. he
managed to Snag out a rev hundred
bones, and he started a neat little news
| paper and stationery store UP on Column
/ bus avenue The little dump did well
/ from the go-off. and the ex-bookie Is haul
| ing in an average of about so, net profits.
per lunar week | saw him sorting over
noon, while the racing thing was in prog
ress at Gravesend.
Me for this was what he said. I've
forgotten that there ever was racing
J plug in the world l don't know the name
| of a single two-year-old of this year. Too
busy. I get up at five in the morning to
open this drum and get the morning
papers stacked UP in neat little piles, and
| I'm piddlin' around all day on the job.
And / like it. 1 enjoy it.. My mind isn't
torn to ribbons all the time by worry
! ing about this and that end of the horse
game. And I'm getting a little fun out
of life now: getting some good out Of
| the dough that l earn, too. When / was
! in the racing game a dollar. was just, a
tintag to me, because 1 didn't have any
mortgage on the bone: was just allowed
; to hold it little while. Now a dollars
working for it, and it means something.
I've got all of the old horse cope elimi-
/ mated from my carcass. and it's just as
! likely that I'll be kicked to death by
guinea pigs while taking a walk on
Broadway as it is that I'll ever get the
! horse bug again.. And then the one
time bookie sold a couple of penny after
| noon newspapers and hauled down the
brace of coppers with the savoir faire of
a sure-enough business man.
/ thought more of him then than 1 ever
had when he was sinking along the bet
ting ring back line as bookmaker
The box-fight club exploiters will have
to think up something new. The "all
members O. dis club" gag isn't going to
do any more-nOt as long as the afOre-
mentioned His Whiskers Governors all
of the dead-games hereabout allude to his
eXcellency Gov. Hughes-is on the job.
The boxing clubs were getting away
with it pretty tidily until the governor
slipped along last week and put the XII
bosh on the Ketchell-Langford bout. But,
as usual with persons of this kind. they
were inchin' and inchin' along with their
stuff each and every week, and finally
they made the club-membership thing
farce.
Tickets for all Of the fights were on sale
at all Of the hotels mostly patronized by
men, and anybody wearing a hat could
ease along and stake himself to a ticket
for a fight, the ticket reading. of course,
that the purchaser thereof. by the simple
act of digging up his piece of currency
for the ticket. thereby became "a men,
Der O. dis club
The boxing law of the state of New
York, of course, reads that no money
shall be charged for boxing exhibitions.
and of course it was the easiest thing in
life for the deputies of the governor to
swing in and buy few tickets, and then
inform the governor of how wantonly the
law was being violated
The box-fght club people. too. were
pressing the thing right along in the mat
ter of rounds. At first they started out
with six-round things. and then they
nudged along to ten. and it was only a
question of time, If Mr.. Hughes hadn't
stepped in, before they'd have been ladling
out. or trying to ladle out, finish fights.
Moreover, the law here only contem-
plates boxing exhibitions" Well, If that
scrap between Ketchel and OBrien
wasn't sure-enough slaughtering prize
fight as far as it went. then l never saw
q mitt put on a biffer. When the pro-
moters of boxing around here finally
learn that there is real chance for them
to get the coin by sticking to the law
and not trying to make chimpanzee Of
the decidedly determined and stiff-spined
gentleman up at Albany, then there'll
be prosperity for decent boxing around
this town. but not before.
In connection with this deadly animos-
ity OF all of the dead-games in this neigh
borhood toward Gov. Hughes it's an odd
thing to listen to the same crowd ex-
claim, as they're always exclaimingy.
"Chee wouldn't it be the candy II Teddy
och a,,1 RI ha M
state again."
Mr.. Roosevelt sure was all for the box
ing thing around here. and he was the
author or at least the main suggester.
of law which, in his day as Governor
of New York. made even finish fights
possible right in Madison Square Garden.
The golden days of the fighting game in
New York were the days of Mr.. Roose-
velts incumbency as Governor of New
York.
When Mr.. Roosevelt sped along and
took the gubernatorial chair he found
pretty stiff anti-fghting law Oh the New
York books. but he promptly had that
law erased and another one substituted
could do about any old thing in the ring
except hit each other with shovels or
meat axes. Those were the days when
men like Jeffries and Fftz and Corbett
and Rubin and Sharkey were hammering
the everlasting daylights out of each
other. right down to the knockout wal
lop. at the Coney Island Fighting Club
and right in Madison Square Garden. too
the days when little fellows like Terry
McGovern and Frank Erne and Young
Corbett weren't held down to the limited
stuff, but banged each other smack-dab
into Siumberville. without any by-your-
leave of the police authorities.
Yes. and when Mr.. Roosevelt was po-
lice commissioner of this mans town he
didn't make any bones whatever about
taking in the fights himself. He didn't
try to sneak or stink about it. but took
a large young ringside seat for himself
when good bout was on and passed his
arm around the shoulders of the fellow
the wallops, and even tossed an Occa-
sonal word of advice to one or other of
the scrappers
The big base ball folks over here are
convinced. too, that If Mr.. Roosevelt had
stuck along for another couple of years
as Governor of New York they'd have got
him to stand for Sunday base ball in
New York state. They don't argue that
Mr.. Roosevelt is or ever was a base ball
bug. but they maintain that Mr.. RoOse-
Welt. sheerly because Of his love for sports
of all kinds. had good deal of an open
mind regarding Sunday base ball and
was. In fact. inclined to believe that men
that had to work all the week were enti-
tied to Sunday ball
No wonder the spots of this neigh
while and say: "Chee. but wouldn't it be
| the bonbors If Teddy'd get t. be guv'nor
again. what.
nv