The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-24

Two drawings day are held up
stairs over an Indiana-av resort
and a third is held at midnight. The
midnight play is an innovation.
The two Negro policy kings were
getting along all right with two
daily drawings until the baseball
season opened. Then they figured
out the midnight play to compete
with the baseball pools.
Approximately 200 agents. work
ing on a IS per cent commission,
hustle business and each brings in
around ST or So a day in nickles,
dimes. quarters and a few dollars.
There's no limit to the bets, but a
SIS wager is rare.
And the secret of it all is dreams.
Here's How 1t Works
Here's the way the racket operates:
Sam Jones spends a restless night.
Maybe he has lot of fragmentary
dreams, but he remembers one above
all the others.
Suppose he dreams of cucumberS.
Maybe he ate some and maybe that's
the reason he dreamed, but at any
rate, cucumpers decide his num-
bers" play for the next day.
Sam Jones encounters a num-
bers" salesman. That isn't hard to
do. The difficulty lies in avoiding
them
"Wh'ud you dream about last
night, SOM" asks the salesman. Sam
admits he dreamed of cucumberS.
Dream Book an Accessory
The salesman pulls out his only
equipment THE Witch's Dream
Book"-thumbs through it and "cu-
cumbers" yields a number. That's
Sam Jones play and if he's sucker
enough to bet a dollar on the Gu
cumber's number, he's lesSened his
chances that much, because the
dollar bets don't often win.
The Rose-Phoenix and the Tia
Juana dailies pay 200 to l. A nickel
bet will get you 50, if you're lucky
enough to have your combination
of three numbers appear in one Of
two columns of figures.
The RoSe-PhoeniX drawing is
public and the chumpS can watch
the numbers drawn from a bowl of
70 wooden peas such as used III
pocket billiard games. The Tia
Juana numbers are supposed to be
drawn in Pittsburgh and telegraphed
to Indianapolis and other cities.
Lowdown on the "Shutout'
Curiously enough, no one ever
sees a telegraph messenger boy make
a delivery at the Indiana-av head
quarters.
The B. & P. midnight pool draw
ing is public, too, and gets the larg-
est play because the operators pay
400 to as an inducement.
1t sounds fair, you say, but wait.
You haven't heard about the shut
out" If the policy kings could pitch
baseball shutouts like they pitch
number shutouts," they'd be big
league material.
The "shutout" is about the neat
est trick of the week and is designed
to make sure that the pool oper-
ators don't lose at all and is a posi-
tive guaranty against dropping any
big bets at 400 to l.
Operators Fix Overtime
The salesman gives the dreamer
a duplicate sales slip. just as if he
had disposed of bushel of pota-
toes. The salesman is supposed to
turn in the originals to the pool.
But suppose there's a S. bet down.
The numbers go on the shutout list,
which means that the salesman
didn't turn his slips in in time for
the drawing.
The point is that no one except
the pool operators knows when the
overtime starts. They fix it them
selves and change it from time to
time, so while the chump may
know he's been taken, he can't
prove it.
The right" dream may be just
around the corner for the number
players, but they're in a speculative
roundhouse and don't know it.