Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-03-30

composed of H. I. Wilson, Uni Hanson,
Eddie Sachs and probably a couple of
silent partners operated for years a we'll
patroniZed establishment. Sam Martin
operated a similar place down the city
hall alley in the building which now
houses the police patrol outfit. In the
nj. and M. (named for Martin and Nose
by) Charlie Little, Spot Satterly, Paddy
D~ougherty constituted another firm
with Snapper Baptiste at the black
board and Harry Sweet at the telegraph
key. The Combination gambling house
conducted a poolroom. which was run by
Phil Hamil and George Macmillan, while
across the street in the Exquisite" Mel
Lowery and Silas King with Kit Carson
as manager connected with all the big
winter tracks.
Five poolrooms, each doing a Ian Of
flee business, seems q sufficiepcy for one
town. but simultaneously there were
other or smaller places which received
their returns from the big places, either
by arrangement or by stealth. Montana
had its own summer season OF racing
with go days in Butte, 80 days in Ana
conda and a wind-up at Helena OF q
week or 10 days. Most of the counties
put on racing for their county fairs Tor
three or four days. AS winter APP
preached the horseowners migrated to
the south with their strings and the
same horses could be played the year
around. The same faces seen on the
Montana tracks among the players would
be seen in the Butte poolrooms and near
ly all the favorite horses would be win
ter racing at the bay district in Cali
fornia, viz: Oakland, E~rneryville, Ingle-
side, Tanforan. switching every two
weeks during the entire season, or at
Ascot neal Los Angeles. The turnover
in Butte each day through the winter
was tremendous, frequently exceeding
the summer play at the Butte track.
DAILY Encouraged Sport
Marcus DAILY, far from froWning on
this amusement, later interpreted as q
dissipation, encouraged the sport, with
his big stock farm at Hamilton n Sen
ator w. A. Clark was for q time a horse
owner, simultaneously with Days &C
tivity, though he withdrew later unde
pressure of his increasing business at
fairs. His sons, Win and Charlie, were
horse owners and owned and entered
classy steeds, though they did not oper-
ate on the magnitude of DAILY. Butte
miners at that time were race track dev-
otees almost to a man and found nc
difficulty in performing The, night SHIFT
at the mines and playing the races BY
day, at the track in summer, and in the
poolroomS in winter. 1t Is safe to say
that no city of its size was as 'horsey' {
city as Butte and in few places were the
rank and file of the male population al
well informed concerning racehorses anc
their merits as in Montana. The daily
racing form, q loose leaf record, was re
ceived and sold every day by the hun
dreds In Butte and many a man kept hi'
form book religiously, and studied 1t Sc
faithfully that he could tell you the pas
performances of every worthy horse TO
months back as we'll as the horses gen.
ealogy, its dam, its sire, its ancestry anC
its ownership. To the typical Butt,
miner this was considered q Legitimate
sport and almost N exact science.
To visualize the condition one mus
remember playing the races was no
then considered with disapproval by biz
business or by the captains of industry
In summer the mines would close for an,
special event at the track and frequentl,
DAILY would be there in person with hi
associates and department heads as wei
as thousands of his employees. Butte haC
a large percentage OF single men in thos
days and many of these were not lon
over from the old country. The Irisl
had known racing at home and vol Il
1T in Butte like a duck to water. Euthus
lasts were not ~dissipated hangers-on o
the game but high-class men, who FIRE
quently made money at the sport the
loved SO we'll. Nor was the track or pool