Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1913 — REPUBLICAN REPORTER VISITS RACE TRACK [ARTICLE]

REPUBLICAN REPORTER VISITS RACE TRACK

V 1 ' ' V . /! . - Saw Gambling In Volume and Watched Porter County __ Mingle With the Sports.

CREDIT SYSTEM IS USED. Sport Gives Initials to Bookie, Who Has Two Aids, One Who Takes Your Money and a Third Who Records Your Wager—A Fourth Man Settles With Those Who Win —Solicitors Worked Openly in the Amphitheatre and One Woman Lost s3o—Carnival of Chicago Sports. yThe Republican reporter visited the track of the 'Mineral Springs Jockey Club, near Porter, Indiana, Tuesday, just to see whether horse racing can be conducted without gambling and to ascertain if possible why Governor Ralston and the Indianapolis newspapers had so completely ignored the present race meet, after bluffing considerably during the July meeting and following the action of. Governor Marshall last fall in sending the state militia to break up the races. Just as reported on the sporting pages of Chicago papers the races were conducted as running races have been for ages, the betting feature being the main attraction and the horse race a secondary feature with a big majority of those in attendance. The reporter went to Hammond on the 10:12 train Tuesday morning, took the South Shore electric to Gary and caught the first race train out of Chicago for the track There were about 300 people on the train and their faces were buried in the programs for the day or in copies of Racing Form, a sporting sheet published for “doping” out the horses. The reporter found a seat with a dapper young colored man. who readily entered into conversation, and stated that he sometimes was able to get "next” to some information and would be pleased to tip anyone off if he had anything “good.” He later told right where he could be found during the progress of the races. About fifty per cent of those who went out on the first train wore complimentary badges, being officials of the track, owners of horses, bookmakers and tipsters. All others paid $1 admission. The two later trains brought large crowds, mostly sports who had come to do a little betting. On a large blackboard -under the amphitheatre the program had been written, scratched horses had been marked off and the names of £he jockeys also written just above the name of the horse. The sports were busy copying 1 ' the jockey’s names on the program. For a half hour there was no sign of any betting and then little clusters could be seen at several places beneath the amphitheatre An observing person could watch on the outskirts for a little bit and see just what was going on. Men would take rolls of bills from their pockets, extract one or two of the size they were going to wager, put the balance back Into their hands and approach ope of the plustcrs of men. In a second they would emerge from the cluster with a satisfied look on their faces. Being there for the purpose of investigating the writer pushe4 his way into the very center of one of the clusters and found that the central figure was a bookmaker with a

on there, wait till that ‘bull’ goes by.” A “bull” is the nickname given policemen. The police on duty at the track were in plain clothes and were not known to many of the sports, although the hookies all knew them and evidently had them fixed. The sheriff of Porter county, a tall man with prematurely gray hair, and the marshal of the town of Porter walked about the betting arena, but accommodatingly looked away from the bookmakers. If a man bet' on the winning horse and wanted to collect his bet he would go to the bookmaker and ask “Who pays this bet?” He would be answered “A big tall fellow: watch for him at the door near the saloon; there he is now, that big fellow with the blue shirt on; he’s paying you.” The better would carelessly wend his way toward the man indicated and both would step out of the door, which was protected from the sight of the crowds and the better would give his initials and the bookmaker’s aide would look through his envelopes and find the one with the initials on it and hand it to the successful better, in the meantime the bookmakers were busy taking wagers on the next race. Only a half hour from one race to the next. Successful betters walked about the grounds and tore open their envelopes without paying attention to the sheriff, the marshal and the special police and the officers re- v ciprocated in kind. Once the marshal of Porter picked up an envelope, looked at the initials and the other marks on it, peeped inside as if to see If there was any money left and then tossed the envelope to the ground again. _ After watehing things beneath the grandstand for some time the reporter went to the ainphitheatre just as the first race was starting. ‘They’re off,” spontaneously came from voices throughout the grandstand, and people climbed to the chairs to get a better view of the speeding bobtails. Men and women were trying to pick out the horses on which they had bet, and as the animals entered the stretch many of the betters called out “Come on there, Dustpan,” “Oome on there, Wood Dove,” “You’re the stuff, Balronia,” or indulged in some exciting talk in a fancied notion that they would help the horse of their selection. In a short time it was noticed that two solicitors with programs <- marked with the odds were seen in the grandstand, taking bets in a somewhat bolder fashion than had been done below. Women were paronizing these books, making bets of $5, $lO and S2O. Any person could see what was going on but no .effort was made to stop It. Tbe betting continued from the first race to the last and the sheriff, the marshal and the plain clothes men mingled with the crowd. Prosecutor Walter Fabing, who was expected to tip off Governor Ralston if anything was wrong, is said to have' been absent Tuesday, but to have seated that he could find no evidences of gambling on other days. Tuesday Governor Ralston’s *ttenttoh was called to the fact that gambling was going on and he said he would look into the matter, and later it is reported that he had arranged to call out the South Bend and Elkhart companies of the national guard to stop the races provided he was really convinced that there was gambling. The writer listened to much of the talk in the amphitheatre. One lady remarked to another “I haven’t won a bet today, lost S3O already. Yesterday I broke even; I wish there wasn’t a race track or a handbook in a mHIVon miles, but I know as long as there are races that I'll [day them. It Is the most fascinating of sports, but It is a hard game to beat.” / The reporter asked the colored tipster whom he met going to the races, if there was pot a great deal of real suffering accoeioned from the losses sustained. The colored man replied, “Why, Mister, a man ought to know how much he can afford to lose, hadn’t he, and if he loses any more, whose fault is It? No one to blame but himself.” A big policeman in the Gary station talked freely. He said he hoped the races would continue, didn’t believe in stopping people at their sport; what if they did gamble, a little. It was their own money they were betting. Over in Ireland they let them run. all right, and they were a great thing. Peo-

program of the next race and in carbon figures large enough to be seen at some distance the odds offered on each horse were written. Two aides to the bookmaker stood close by. As the bettet approached one of the afdes snatched his money from his hand and placed it in his own pocket. The better said In an undertone “Ten dollars on Eva Tanguay,” and the man with the program repeated it. named thg odds and asked for the initials of the better. A third man stood aside and deftly recorded this information on a tablet In his coat pocket, never glancing toward his pocket nor removing the tablet or pencil. The inexperienced better would say. “What do I get to show that r have my money down?” To which the bookmaker would reply. “Never mind, come around, here and if you win you’ll get your money all right” Frequently as some better became a little too brash in swnlging his money or too loud while making a bet, one of the bookmakers or the assistants would say in a deep undertone: “Get that money out of sight, there: do you want the sheriff to see it?” or “Don’t let the sheriff see that money” or “hold

pie were always butting in over here in America. Just then a bell rang, tbe officer Called out “Race train,” unlocked a door from the stfifcion to the track and about one hundred people, including a band which furnished music at the track, rushed aboard the train, which made a fast run, not stopping between Gary, and the track. Returning the first train does not make the Gary stop, going directly from the track to Englewood without a stop. One new stable is being erected at the track, making about forty in all, and a shed is being erected ovtjr a part of the broad and long cement walk that leads from the railroad to the amphitheatre. This is to furnish shelter for the track visitors when it rains, th 4 railroad having built no sheds. The race track situation has resolved itself into one of two things. It should either he shut down permanently as an institution ' that exists in violation of law, or it should be allowed to proceed uninterrupted. The *policy of Governor Ralston has been very wishywashy so far. The July track meet continued with occasional threats, but.the gambling went right along, and now the governor is putting up with the falsehoods of a “pale” prosecuing attorney who has either deliberately, lied about the situation at the track or who has neither ability, nor initiative to ascertain what the conditions are. There were probably 2,000 people at the races Tuesday. They were largely Chicago and Gary sports who were there to gamble on the horses they easily accomplished what they were there for. The gambling might a| well he right out in the open as veiled with the simple subterfuges adopted at the track, for any ten* year old hoy could get next to the system if he didn’t get crushed by the mad rush of bettors that surrounded the bookmakers—The expense *of sending the militia to the track seems very foolish, for a half dozen mep with authority from the governor, or, jn fact, a positive statement from the governor as to his intention, would causfe a permanent suspension of the race track gambling, which is as certain to follow running racing as night is to follow day. Based on the experience at the race track Tuesday a story was supplied by the writer to the Indianapolis News and this will probably have the effect of causing Gov 1 ernor Ralston to come “out of the woods,” unless there is enough pressure' “brought to bear on him by the politicians of the state, many of whom seem to he Interested in either the Mineral Springs, racing or the open gambling at French Lick Springs.