OCR Text |
Show He Had the Betting Fever By STANLEY CORDELL Associated Newspapers WNU Service PEOPLE of ordinary means who come into sudden wealth sometimes have difficulty in adjusting their lives to a more leisurely mode of existence. It was so with Maria and Duncan Sperxer who had just Inherited a small fortune from an uncle of Duncan. They had, of course, always talked of what they'd do if they ever "had money." And now that overnight, they had become wealthy, it was a little difficult to grasp the full extent ex-tent of the possibilities at hand. The Inheritance came in August. A month later Duncan quit his job. And two months after that the Spencers closed their suburban home In Rainsford in New England and set out for Miami, Fla. By January Janu-ary they felt reasonably acclimated, had acquired a number of friends and were enjoying themselves. Now, not far from Miami there is a race track known as Hialeah, which begins operations in January, if you should lose four or five times, it would mean the end of our fortune. for-tune. We'd better not come out here any more." But by now Duncan was very sure of himself. He knew, he said, his horses. Moreover, after he'd cleaned up they could live just so much higher high-er than heretofore planned. And so Duncan, much to Maria's consternation, began to plunge. He bought hundred-dollar straight tickets tick-ets in bunches. And it wasn't long before the fact that the worth of acquired experience, touts and tips and dope sheets was practically niL Favorites didn't always win, and old-timers' advice was about as good as nothing at all. No one, Duncan Dun-can discovered, knew a great deal more than anyone else about which horse would win a certain race. Duncan lost $6,000 on a single race. Before the day was ended his total losses had risen to $10,000. That night he consulted his most reliable dope sheet, made certain notations on a block of paper and the next day journeyed out to Hialeah Hia-leah with a vengeance. Before the last race was run he had contributed contrib-uted $30,000 more to the fund that supports the pink flamingoes in the park's center green. A sort of desperate des-perate feeling kept him awake that night. And when he dropped another an-other $5,000 on the day following the desperate feeling changed to panic. His losses now were serious, and unless he made a final plunge in the hopes of cleaning up well, things lnnkri nrpttv harl and serves the winter tourists of many nearby resorts for more than two months. Betting is carried on on a large and profitable scale profitable for the winners, who, it usually turns out, are the stake holders. The Spencers attended the Hialeah Hia-leah races with a Mr.- and Mrs. Eliot Graves, whom they had met at their Miami hptel. The Graveses were weathered tourists, and knew ; all about Hialeah. They were bettors bet-tors of the first water, and smiled when the Spencers expressed a preference pref-erence to observe the activities from the grandstand. However, after watching from the grandstand for two consecutive . .. . Duncan was standing all alone by the paddock railing when the horse on which he held a straight ticket came in third, and the feeling that came over him was similar to that which comes to men who contemplate con-template suicide. He felt suddenly old and broken and sick at heart Realization of what a fool he'd been swept over him and brought a tremor trem-or of disgust to his lips. He thought of Maria, remembering her quaint old New England custom of being conservative, deriding himself for scorning it. New England seemed very far away just then. He turned away, dreading the moment mo-ment when he would have to face his spouse; he turned and found her standing two feet away, watching him. Duncan gulped and tried to meet her eyes and couldn't. She took a step toward him, placed a hand on his arm, and smiled. "I know, I know," she said. "We'll go away tomorrow. I guess we're not gamblers, Duncan. We're we're New Englanders, conservative conserva-tive folks." Duncan looked at her miserably and shook his head. "We can't go away, Maria. We've lost everything." every-thing." But Maria still smiled, and then Duncan saw that her other hand held something in it. He stared, and heard her voice as if from a distance. "I told you to be careful, Dune," she said, faintly admonishing. "It was all right so long as we played the favorite to show. That was conservative betting. I was sure of it That's why I bought a show ticket on every favorite every time you played the horse to win. It was safest." She paused. "I've figured it up, and we're right back just about where we started. But we've certainly had a thrill. We'll have something to tell folks back, in New England." Duncan gulped and grinned. "Yes," he said, "we will, but we won't" The Spencers closed their suburban subur-ban home in Rainsford in New England and set out for Miami, Florida. days, the monotony of Hialeah horse racing began to pall. Duncan Spencer Spen-cer consulted the Graveses, and received re-ceived firsthand information about betting. A "show" ticket they were informed, would pay winnings if the horse on which the bet were placed came in first second or third. A "place" ticket would pay if the horse were first or second, and a "straight" ticket paid only if the horse came in first "And," Mrs. Graves explained, "if you play the favorite to show every ev-ery time, you're , bound to come out a winner, though your profits are small." What Mrs. Graves had said was the truth. What she failed to mention men-tion was the fact that few amateurs are contented with playing the favorite to show each time. After they acquire the "feel" of the thing they inevitably succumb to a combination com-bination of betting fever, natural ego and instinclive restlessness, which usually has dire results. However, inspired by the enthusiasm enthu-siasm and winnings of the Graveses, and despite Maria's emphatic disapproval dis-approval of indulging in any type of entertainment which remotely resembled re-sembled gambling, Duncan placed a two-dollar "show" bet and won. After that it was merely a matter of time. For two days running Duncan adhered to Mrs. Graves' advice by playing the favorite to show. His winnings were small, but the satisfaction derived therefrom was great On the third day Duncan took a flier by betting two dollars on the favorite to place and won. On the fourth day he became more reckless than ever and bought a straight ticket with satisfactory results. Within a fortnight Duncan considered consid-ered himself a seasoned race track enthusiast and looked with scorn and contempt upon grandstand sitters. sit-ters. Maria still wore a fretful look, provoked, no doubt by her innate New England conservatism, but even her constant admonitions against recklessness failed to dampen damp-en Duncan's ardor. Another week passed and Duncan threw all caution to the winds. He bought several fifty-dollar place tickets tick-ets at a crack, and was only mildly satisfied when the day's receipts netted net-ted him a total profit of three hundred hun-dred dollars. It was when Duncan took a long shot on an unknown horse by buying two $100 straight tickets that Maria gave way to impulse and voiced a complaint Even the fact Duncan won didn't change her ideas on the subject "We can't afford to take the chance, Dune," she told him. "Why, |