The San Francisco call., 1909-11-21
Public Puzzled
At New System
OfLaying Odds
Wise Ones, However, Follow the
Old Timers, or Else Make
Little Book Themselves
By WILLIAM ]. sLATTERY

''"ny, It's great. SheepShca0 BAY
never like this when they started
In on the oral game. Watch 'em next
week. They will run I6O days instead
of 80. It's big game, i tell yOu.'
''This game is the biggest cheese
they ever tried to get away with In
san Francisco. They'll all starve to
death. It's like robbery to tax "A man
two bucks to get in here and look
around like boob. III go over on
the other side of the bay and bet ON
the streetcars running up Market
street"
Take your choice between the above
} statements. They are good examples
of the extremes of conversation that
stihed the air of the betting ring at
EmeryvirIe yesterday. Perhaps the
+ results of the various races had much
TO do with the feelings of the various
individuals who declared themselves.
but there was no getting away from
the opposing elements One thought
the oral system will work itself into
public favor. The other believed that
the game as it is to be tried out will
be dismal failure.
But there is no getting away from
the fact that the historic ring at old
Emeryyille presented puzzling ap-
pearance yesterday afternoon. IL
looked more like the opening of big
land lottery: Men tore around hither
and thither like wild things. Some OF
4 them seemed TO know what they were
about, while others very readily ad-
mitted that they felt like mountain
eers taking their first peep at the
wonders of a great city.
There were eight or nine regular
bookies in the game-bOOkies who are
known from one end of the country to
| the other-but aside from these thers
were hundreds who made books on
/ their own behalf Why. everybody in
the ring was a book maker. Just as
soon as a man found out that he could
not get a bet down with one of the
men who We're taking the chance OF
I. laying odds he Immediately turned
book maker himself. Why not? His
money was as good as anybody eIse's.
4 He did not have to pay $40 a race to
4 the association either. All he had to
do was to give his friends the Office.
And so it went up and down the line.
Men who have been in the habit OF
contributing to the persons on the
block for ever so many years. found
themselves surrounded by small
armies. all willing to wager. 1t felt
like dream to many of them, but it
was real all the same, especially as most
of them won. The game was fine for
those who happened to think of trans
forming themselves into book makers
/ instead of so called suckers"
There was no chance for any of
them to lose. All they had to do was
to make a book just like the real Nc
| Coy bookies made. Everybody knows
| that these professiOnaI>1ayer of odds
were making what is generally known
as 100 per cent book" Nobody was
laying any prices against even the
rankest outsider. The longest shot of
| the day was Milpitas in the first race.
and he winked himself home at II to 1.
The game was good for amateur and
professional book makers alike They
were all kept busy For the very rea-
son that none of them had his work
properly systematized they found it
difficult indeed to do as much business
as they might have done. The har-
vest was plenty. but the reapers We're
few. Any man who had a wide enough
circle of acquaintances could have
been kept just as busy as he was in
the old days But he did not know
j everybody who was eager TO wager
and the fear that many deputy sher-
in or plain clothes policeman lurked
in the crowd caused him to have a care.
Men like Frank Daroux and Al Ko-
enigsberg did a land office business.
They lOomed up in that crowd like
couple of lighthouses near a treacher-
Gus rock. Everybody knew them and
they knew everybody. This was the
I
knew the men who wanted to do busi-
ness with them and they were willing
to accommodate such persons. They
were generous with everything save
their prices. This let them out.
Little money was passed, though
many boy shook hands with another
and slipped him bank note or a gold
piece. 1t would take an officer of the
law with a microscope over an eagle
eve to detect this. But there was
sionally. in a remote corner of the ring
some of the more reckles ones would
come right out with a flash and a jim
gle. but this did not happen when
there was a crowd around.
The man who knew the book makers
! was nearly as popular as the bookie
on around the track spent their time
/ in digging up live ones and sending
them in" to the boys who We're willing
and ready to place money for them.
/ One man in particular was not BASH
! full in declaring that he had acted as
the introducer for more than 100 per-
sons who wanted to be known so that
| they might make their bets.
These operators were quickly dubbed
''the credit men," They worked Just
as they used to work around the New
York tracks. Most of them had their
experience back in Gotham and they
knew just how to handle the game.
There was nothing wrong with il.
/ Sometimes the man introduced would
slip his money into the Outstretched
i hand of the bookie and whisper into
\ his ear. Sometimes the bookte would
/ introduce him TO another. who would
| quickly write something on card and
pass 1t along to another in the en-
ploy of the bookie 1t worked many
ways and il seemed to work success
/ fully for those who went about it in
the right way. They experienced no
/ difficulty.
Some of them paid of on the track.
1 though the majority did their settling
! up at their clearing houses" here or
| in Oakland. The men who bet their
money knew right where to go. They
/ all seemed to have absolute confidence
| in the layer of odds, for there was
| never a Whimper nor a cry from any
i 0f them IT worked like a mutual