The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-06

He first tackled me when we were Just the other side of Albany and all the way through to Rochester and points west he was showing attractive betting propositions at me. If I had covered all of them I estimate that we would now have staked at least S3O0,000 apiece and I'd be wiring back home for the remaining two hundred and ninety mine thousand and nine hundred dollars needed in order to cover my bets with cash. brought a. hundred with me.
 BREEZED IN FROM DINER I was sitting in the club car as we neared Albany. trying to think up d suitable beginning for this dispatch, when he breezed in from the diner. lie was using a private gold tooth pick, thus stamping him as a person of undoubted culture, and as though to denote that expense was absolutely no object to him. he had a few nor sels of caviar adherng to his nous tache. By the pound, he was probably | the most influential person on the l train. He had three extra chins and | a mezzanine; and 1 judge they must measure him for his waistcoats by the front foot. He sat down alongside of me and said in that informal way which many of our countrymen 1 while travelling adopt toward persons 1 they never saw before:
 1 Well, who's going to get the nomi- nation out at Chicago this coming week?' l When a man has authentic informa- l tion upon a subject which is of inter est to the entire country I believe he should divulge it freely for the benefit of the masses generally. So I said. 1 "Besom will be the nominee" | "Whaddeya mean, Besom," he re-
 piled Who's this here Besom?"
 Jasper K. Besom," explained. ley. Motto He'll sweep clean. " | Never heard of him. he said. Any how l don't take no stock in all this dark horse stuff. The way politics is | handled nowadays them dark horses all run for Sweeney I'll lay you even money right now in any amount that | it's Wood inside of the four ballots"
 IDEA OF SPORT
 1 I declined My idea of sporting venture is to pick a favorite and then wait till the race is ocer and if my | man has won. then to spend a pleasant ' evening figuring how much money I'd have if I had only put up a few ducats on him at the prevalent odds But i this thing of chancng your cash be- l fore the returns come in does not ap- peal to me-there's too great an ele- ment of risk in it. I'm aventurous,
 but I'm not foolish With my money Finally he gave me up in despair | and moved off down the car. The last l! saw of him-and heard-he was of ! fering to beat a delegate from Ohio | s5.0o0 at five to one that U. s. Grant | could have licked won Hindenburg the best day von Hindenburg ever saw.
 After he had left me I, fell to mak- ing mind bets with myself. I am still l engaged in that pleasant pastime. I l have just bet myself half a million dollars that by this time next Tuesday Chicago will be so iammed that the overflow will have to stand out in the lake Three i.irhts hence the fellow who gets a 90. in hotel hallway will \ he the lucky one. because he will l~sleep by himself. whereas nearly all the rest of usswill be hunking in with parties
 unknown and probably will not be on
 good terms with them either. Politics certainly does make estranged bed fellows. especially at national eon- vention. And YOU must intimately and affectionately have known a man for a
 great many years before you can lie
 all night about six inches away from
 him and he sleeping with his muffler
 cut-out open. and still continue to care
 for him. In the case of individuals
 whom you never saw before. it just natural'v cannot be dene.
 ANOTHER LARGE BET
 have made another large bet with
 myself--which I confidently expect to
 win-that throughout the week. start ling Monday. Chicago. restaurant prices will reach pinnacle hitherto unap-
 preached in the annals of civilized