The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-11-01
Rockne Takes Dig at Foundation Discusses Several Games
/ ALKING
IT Over
PAGE 80
WITH JOE wILLiA,ds

TIE the casual undiscriminating
u eye there Is not a great deal of
difference in the main essentials be-
tween the stock broker and the
bookmaker except that one is a
profession dignifed by legal APP
Droval while the other. in this state,
is not Considering that the basic
principles of the financial district
and the betting ring respect the
same general theory that if you PICK
'em right you win and if you don't
you walk home. it Is not surprising
TO learn that the grief at the tracks
these days is just about as thick as
It is In Wall street.
mean TO say the bows are not doing
20 well. and unless the trade can produce
the race track equivalent of an Owen T.
Young or j. p. Morgan TO stabilize the
situation a number Of currently prominent
operators soon will be reduced to the
status of mere and melancholy spectators.
The mechanics of the System at
the track are less formal and exact
ing than those which exist n the
street, and it pains me to record
that some of our citizens who went
overheard in the market have been
out to the tracks trying to get it
back by the simple eXpedient of cut
guessing the bookies.
r SAY it pains me because some CT
Il our citizens are not as honorable
and upright as they might be in
their negotiations with the gentle
men on the lawn and in the past
several days the number Of these in
vestors who promised to return
within twenty-four hours to make
good their losses and did not, has
risen to staggering proportions.
II
The investor in the street finds 1t i'm
possible TO use ANYTHING as a substitute
for money but on the local tracks where
there are no machines and all bets are
completed orally with the understanding
that n mutual settlement will be made the
following dav the procedure is unham-
p=red in any wav by cash restrictions.
q
1t is possible for any one who is
at all known on the lawn to carry
on extensive transactions through
out the afternoon without actually
having so much as thin, under
nouriShed dime in his jeans. II at
the end of the day he is out in front,
all we'll and good, but if he isn't the
bookie may see the gentleman the
next day and he may not.
INFORMALLY, this seemingly loose
IN and one-sided arrangement
works out very we'll. The bookic
makes sure it does by clipping his
odds so short that the percentage OF
chance, already markedly in his
favor, is jumped up considerably
and in the final counting there is
more than enough left in the pot
TO offset the run-out of the welchers.
But these are not normal DAYS at the
track and more than one bOOkie, or club
house commissioner. as they are more
elegantly termed. has begged down under
the strain and called 1t quits. Frank Shan
non and Jim Beatty who have been oper-
atInE consDiclously in the club house all
seaeen folded I'D Wednesday. heavy losers
and unwilling 20 traffic further with
clientele growing increasingly uncertain.
%
Another well-known commissioner
who stood around and watched the
proceedings with the dolorouS gaze
of a disinterested figure Wednesday
was Barney Blank, the former Times
Square newsie who rose to spectacu-
lar affiuence through his acumen
as a follower Of the bangtails.
r IKE many others in his set,
IL Blank was caught between two
fires. losing both in the market and
at the track, and in one afternoon
he dropped a total of $197 900, which
is lot of money to young man
who counted his wealth in Sullen
looking pennies not so many years
ago. Blank promptly issued notes
to cover his Indebtedness, and such
is the public faith in Blank as a
dependable human security that
these notes experienced an active
upward movement Wednesday,
jumping from 80. to 90.
In other words a hundred dollar I. o. L.
Bearing Blanks signature-and this hap
pens to be his real name-is good for 500
at the track. They were offered at 500
when he first put them In circulation with
abe promise to take them M within sixty
DAYS.
The feeling around the track
where they figure men like horses,
which is to say on past perform
anceS, is that in some way or other
Blank will manage to make good.
He's always made good in the past.
EMIL HERR is also sitting on the
IL side lines these days. Herr is
best known as the steward and
sponsor of the winter book on the
Kentucky Derby, a popular form of
lottery Offering attractive odds on
all horses nominated as derby eli
gibleS.
The catch in the device is that as manv
as 500 horses arc sometimes named while
he starting field is seldom higher than
twenty odd. and of course there are no
refunds on non-starters.
Herr has done right we'll in the
past on his winter book and in
pther ways has prospered. but
We inesday the storm caught up
Wit him and he moved out of the