Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-05

semi-annual bookmaker at
the Bennins race track. Now
lie is living the Sedate Life. and is full
OF Uplift and things.
When l was laying prices at Ben
Ming" walled he. II always was the one
they pinned a rose to when a modern
miracle happened. When L first began l
used to feel sorry for 'em when they
iioated up to my bench with their change
10 bet me on that 100-to-1 stuff \. that
time ] used to Agure that i was cop
pering the installment man when | took
that kind of long-shot coin. But after
ward, oh. you afterward l s'pose you
remember when that Tommy Foster thing
happened at Benning. If you don't, well
then | remember Ben Bolt all right. 1t
was one of those 200 to l sthings that
eased through. / got gnawed on it by
an octogenarian who belonged TO the
Oldest Inhabitants Assoc iation.
When this a ed. bent old man totter-
ed up to my stoo and bean to dole
dime and Quarters and halves out of &
canvas Rag the color of 2 wash-up towel
in an iron foundry. / was so sorry for
him that / felt like slipping him SD OF
something If he'd promise me TO % HON
to-his Great-erand hildren and never play
the races any more. After he'd orte7
SIU OF lEe White metal JUNK lie duflptt
il into my receiving hook ard then lean
ed toward me and squeaked like the aged
asthmati@ that he was:
Tommy Foster, young man, and may
his soul rest in peaee,'
We'll. l wanted To hand those scraps
back to him. and started TO, but he shooh
his shrunken old bean and wouldn't take
It back. l sure felt lumpy around the
fichu for the old boy. His map reminded
me of an old daguerreotype OF some dou-
ble-great-uncle of mine that l used L
see kicking around the house-the picture
! mean-svhen ! was a tyke. ] dgurec
that maybe he was living with the Little
Sisters of the Poor and that he wa.
easing ne dimes and quarters and halye
tHat he had pinched out of the tobacc'
and SNUFF money that some of his strug.
gins descendants had slipped him.
but there Was no giving the silver
shveFs back 10 him. Another Wash
ingtcn bookie. sitting on Il stool next I.
NINE saw me accept il, and he ca'let
me gouse. and a Gaspard. and
grinder and a whole lot of othe
what was going TO do abou
j; without actually tossing the stuf
back at the old man. who was ALREADY
backing into the push?
horse. Tommy Foster. was home an,
in bed, with the blankets pulled up owe
his head. He came down to the wir
like fire dog in front Of hook an,
ladder truck. and | had a chance I,
get back at that other Washington
bookmaker for his cracks at me fo
taking the old mans money-just $500
worth OF chance.
,On the next day the Washingto
papers came out and gave the nam
of the ANTIQUE one who'd woppsed m
for the $4,000. He was a promnen
property holder out Georgetown way
and he hadn't been 10 a race track pre-
viously since he'd seen the Fashion
Boston four-mile heat race in 1912, O
some such year as that. But he'd see
the name of Tommy Foster among th
entries, and that gave him hunc1
Tommy Foster had been the name O
the captain of his volunteer fire de
partment outfit back d few years be
fore the Black Hawk war. and that
the kind of remote contingency tina
had drifted my way, alone of all tn
layers in the ring, the day whe
Tommy Foster collected his'n.
Yes. and dye remember the day thu
Tom Mannixs caravan camel Princel,
s,reeied first 10 the Benning string wit
rG1 Ia T. and other help-yourself chal