The Washington times., 1928-12-12
By Ford Frick

During the later years OIL
his life the race track lost
some of its appeal for Riley
Grammar. cit wasn't fast
( enough" he complained. He
wanted something with more
action. !"
He tried cards, and for a
time was addicted to bridge
whist at a time when this
game was first making its ap-
pearance.
Boat races, baseball, every form
Of athletic contest came in for his
attention. ,s
rs there nothing in this world
YOU would refuse to gamble on!
he was once asked.
Nothing" he replied "if the odds
are right. Give me long enough
odds and I'll bet you that can
make water flow uphill"
Tn this connection, there's
another story of Grammar which
Is interesting-a story OF one
time. at least, when the. gam
bier par excellence was taken
by a sIicIxer. 1t occurred on
silipbOard. when Grammar was
returning from Europe after
rather successful sOrtie against
the French bOOkies.
Sitting in the smoking room one
evening, Grammar was talking with
shipboard acquaintenance. and
the subject of freak bets came up.
'I'II tell you what III do, the
stranger said. You like to gamble,
and SO do ]. Here's bet I'll make
you. Give nae ten to one odds and
I'll bet you an even hundred that
I can drink a glass of water With
out the water going down into my
stomach"
After a little interrogation, Gran
nan agreed
whereupon, the stranger obtained
= glass of water and, calmly stand
ing on his head, drank it.
TT didn't go down into my
stomach" he explained, 1T Went
Grammar grinned and peeled off a
thousand dollars.
"Yon win," he declared. 1.-THE
moral to that is to never play the
other guys game"
Probably no man suffered so
many ups and downs IN so short
a career as did Grammar. But he
never lost his nerve. Around him
he watched men lose. and heard
them curse and rant at fate. Oc-
casionalIy he saw them sink to
suicide in theiR despair. He saw
men win, too, and go into ecstasies
of joy over their winnings. But
Grammar was a. real plunger-born
to the business of chance. Win
ming or losing, his face never once
changed expression; his thin frame
never for an instant betrayed the
strain under which he operated.
And finally he died-a broken
hulk Of man, wiped out Of every
thing except that same nerve and
courage which made him national
figure Discredited, forgotten al
most. he passed on az he lived
asking no favors, granting no quar-
ter-a lone wolf, living nts life and
dying his death without regard to
convention or thought of the fitness
of things
IIdnndH uISu III raw b4uSs -NtF',
one of those roaring mining camps
where gambling was wide open and
there was no limit but the open
sky. But even in death the whim-
sic hand of fate must make it's
little joke He had hoped to die
with his boots on. Instead, he fell
a victim Of pneumonia. He had
hoped to die a prince of gamblers.
Instead. he died A pauper. Grammar
went to Rawhide to recoup his
ebbing fortune at faro and roulette.
His first exploit was 10 break the
gambling house of Carl Young. at
Reno, when he cleared up $52 ,000
in a single night at the table.
But he put it back again
and his little stake with it.
Pneumonia came and death beat
him to the barrier. The roulette
bank which he had hoped tO
break paid the expenses of his
funeral
So passed Riley Grammar, stable
boy and millionaire, bell hop and
plunger-first Of the great figures
OF American gamblers, lone wolf
cold and implacahle in his raids His
code of living was the code of the
underworld. Take what comes, play
to the sky, ask no favors. give ne
breaks, never WEIGH and never
squeaI.
Compared TO the pIungers that
have come along since, Riley Gran
nan was piker. Compared to the
activities Of a Gates or Roth
stein, Grannon's bets were but
Etraws: his greatest coupe but was
warming up processes in the bust
ness of gambling.
But he lived his code to the end
picturesque, smiling, courageous
And those that have come since
have all taken a leaf from the bool