Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-06-17
PASSING OF PLUNGER WALTON
Famous Race Track sport of Past
Generation Recalls Betting
Ring Incident.

IL was one of the best jokes In the life
| OF Colonel Francis Theodore Walton
Plunger' Walton, during recent Years
TO bring forth from his wallet a faded
clipping from Philadelphia paper which
told of the engagement Of Miss Emily
Jewell Walton, daughter Of Mrs. Caroline
Elliot Walton and granddaughter Of the
late Francis Theodore Walton"
i keep that to remember that 1 am
officially dead" said Colonel Walton. who
died recently at his home at 622 West
One Hundred and Fourteenth street New
YORK.. recently. Although "Plunger" Wal
ton has truly been Officially dead" since
ne left the betting rings of American and
Enghsh tracks decade ago "for good, ("
| there are bookies in two hemispheres still
| living who remember the times when
"Plunger" Walton would either win or
lose 10000 or more at one track and call
1t an afternoon And whether he had
won or lost the fortune on single race
no one could tell from his manner as he
wandered away from the track
| Colonel Walton half a dozen years after
the close of his civil war military service
was recorder OF Philadelphia. Later he
went In for Pennsylvania mining and
railroad stocks. The labor riots OF the
late '7Os in Pennsylvania wiped him out
financially or almost so. Wherefore he
| decided to go in for racing
He had new idea which on days would
bring him a fortune-and which perhaps
the next day would take it away from
him-and which in time was adopted by
Ptttsburg Phil, thereby calling the atten-
ton OF racing men to these two foremost
OF plungers. The colonel would not trust
to his own judgment before a race; he
relied upon jockeys who knew their
business, especially, during his palmiest
days, upon Billy Donohue, who later went
to England to train IDLY Langtry's horses
and now is living in France
| TIL back your, '--hoFses' va theAFz eolonei
would say to an owner, III you put Billy
Donohue up" And he admitted once
that he did offer bonuses to Jockeys IL
they would win, a practice which he
claimed went far toward bringing him
winnings and which he defended against
the argument of racing men who did
not think the practice proper.
Especially he liked to back the Lorillard
and Keene strings. From external evil
dence Mr.. Keene has not been known
openly to back his own horses but Mr.
Lorillard did, and Lorillard, therefore,
was not slow to express around the pad
docks his opinion of the plungers, par
ticularly Colonel Walton, whose big bets
spoiled the odds for Lorlllard himself
"Td like to bet $4,000 on your colt, -
some one recalled recently having heard
Colonel Walton say to Mr.. Lorillard at
Saratoga one day in the sos:
'Oh. hush-go away!" Lorillard snapped
in reply. ITS the men like you who spoil
the turf"
The colonel was a bold better and one
40 l. COZ
string. of which Girofle was the star, tc
make a killing. He did. Not only with
Girofle but with other runners he wor
so steadily and so great an amount thai
the more conservative English sports.
men quietly invited the colonel to quiz
the English tracks. About the only
complaint the Englishmen had to max,
against him was that he was winning
too much money. But before he quit he
had backed in European classics Girofle
Foxhall and Iroquois. American horses
and came back then through the Narrowi
as "Plunger Walton and with a fortune
of more than $4,000.
The story has been printed that the
reason he left the track "for good" al
he put 1t himself. was that one day Will,
he sat calmly in an English grandstand
with his wife the horse which he haC
backed and which in the stretch seemed
the money was beaten in the last stride
by a nose.
''Weil. let's be moving back to the
hotel" ne said to his wife so the story
goes. That nose cost me e2OO,OO0" The
amount he lost on this last bet probably
has been stretched by the racing racon
tours who have told this and many Other
stories about the colonels bets since that
day about twenty or more years ago. Blu
II is certain that he was one OF the mos
fearless plungers the race courses on either
side OF the Atlantic ever have known
New York Sun.