Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1921-02-04
Spud McGlone
By CLARENCE l.. CULLEN
(Copyright.)

When Spud McGlone, the tout,
nudged into New York from the win
ter race meeting at New Orleans, he
wore certain sOOty and cindery ap-
pearance that didn't seem to denote
ride on the vanished cars.
Does a job at the gaswOrks. back
in this dump, look good to me?" he
observed gloomily, replying to nobody's
question.
"Does it? Ask Smudge Shaugnessy
II he ever had yen for q beef stew!
Southern race tracks, eh? Say, I'd
rather be moldy ear in q Coney Is
land hot-corn boiler than q red barn
full If feed and hay down there in
the cockroach Dixie belt, and let that
60 with the main bet.
'There's no getting away from the
ring Pinks down there.
1.-THE first day out down there I
slanted thing that looked like beam
pOrridge-h0t to me. took him by the
left fin as he mooned around the ring
marking program and trying to look
wise.
"'Sh-sh!' says I as I tried to lead
him under one Of the stairWays.
'Sh-sh! 1 would fain uncurl one gold
en- word or two unto you
"'Hey? What's that?' he bawled like
fish-peddler yelling shad on a side
street and trying to shake off the
clutch had on him.
"'Not so voicy, MAJOR said I, hang
ing on to him.
"'Hey, lo0k-a-here, what's all this?
he shouted not with any effort, get me.
but just talking in his natural voice.
What dye want?'
"'Sh-sh! Try whispering, general,
says I to him, lamping around to see
If any of the ring Pinks were on the
job. All that desire to do is to send
you away from here Iopsided with cur
rency.'
For about half a minute he studied
me with that harvest-moon wick.
"'What do you want to do that for?'
he shouted. What is it to you whether
I win or not?'
"The soft pedal and low bridge,
please, judge begged the smudge.
is it horse:' he yelled at me.
"'That loud stuff is great in knock
about turn. but here it's liable to crab
a perfectly good sketch. Now, will
you gamble that hundred on one that's
a Rocky Ford wrapped in tissue-paper
and tinfoil and served in Tiffany
dish?
Ills it some horse that's going to
run in this first race that you want me
to play:' he howled.
"'Say, general, won't you try to i'm
agine that you're at wake, and pull
the muffling SHARES down on that drum
Of yours?'
"Nes, it's one in the first race.
"1t's 10 to l now, and it'll street
home like a cat that's been chucked
into a creek with a stone around it's
neck
"Well, the mark yelped then like q
barker with a doulJle-horn megaphone
on a rubbernecl< wagon: How do you
know that this horse will win, hey?
"Just then the ring Pink that I'd
piped the minute before breezed up
behind me with the stiff forefnger for
the middle Of my kidneys.
"'None o. that buzz stuff here,
Bright Eyes, says he to me, or over
the fence for you,' and then I had to
smear away from there and Join the
cljowers in the main aisle
'"Tw0 days later l snagged, coming
down from the grand stand, where he'd
sailed his wife, one that looked to me
like a full basket of quarts.
"'Guy',' says !, as he got to the bot
tom of the steps, dye know the name
Of lt?'
The name OF what? he asked me
in the tone Of the skipper of canal
boat hollering at mule-whacker a
hundred yards up the towpath. Did
you ask me what time it was? Why.
It's half past three pulling out soup
er the size of a hand-painted porcelain
plaque.
ST haven't got an idea in the world
what horse you mean and, Of course,
you're stranger to me'-he was hOl-
iering louder and louder with every
I lost fifty dollars on the
first race'-by this time he was orat-
ing like the ringmaster Of a circus
and if there's any chance to get that
money back, why, of course, I'd like to
obtain the name Of the winner.
"'You look as if you might know,
even if, as say, you are a stranger
to me; and of course if the one you
named really did win I'd be willing to
the right thing toward you
for your Kindness, and
did have that one hooked? Why,
say, it was out Of the water and
swinging toward the grass when
"'Say, LOUIE says the same Pink
that had given me the kidney poke be-
fore, coming up behind me again, 4
thought I told you that tell-'em thing
was all off and done away with around
these works, hey?
"'Now, you femme pipe you again
hopping lob to one o your boguses,
and you won't have any heels left on
your kicks to beat it with And so
there was, hashed again right on the
pin-point of getting a live one on a
thing that won four minutes later from
here to Las Vegas and back, with the
boy looking back and laughing.
'That's the way I was messed
around at New Orleans by the howlers
every time got an easy one soaped up
to the betting-point.,
"say;, does II feel good to be back
where they don't all talk like Tony
Pastor used to sing?