| Show PANIC MADE HIM HEDGE Bookmaker Lost His Nerve at Wrong Time and Ho Hedged George Whcolock the plunging bookmaker book-maker who always gels down bore for the Washington rn v meetings cleaned up heavily on time Now York result on Tuesday last but his was a sad pad story at time lime Mr Roosevelt was running against Judge Van Wyclc for Governor In 1SOS said a turfman who has a string out at Bennlng About two weeks before that election George took a long look over the political form chart and he finally doped It out that Mr Roosevelt wouldnt be able to lose the Governorship If he tried Like most bookmakeis and racing men Whcolock never had much of a polltl ral bias one way or the other Ho ic garded the situation In coldblooded fashion from the speculative point of view and when he got through doping the gubernatorial event he expressed lie conviction to his friend that In lila opinion Mr Roosevelt was a good l to10 shot But the belting was knockIng knock-Ing around oven money all the time novoriholess and BO George started into In-to pull off a hogslaughlermg He put a pioxy on his high stool down at the race track and went gunning gun-ning for all of tlc Van Wyck money he could find There was lots of Van Wyck coin talking around New York right up to thc day of the election and PO Wheelock was quickly uccom modaled Two days before the olec ion he stood lo cop out a put S5000 Incase In-case Mr Roosevit won out On the day before the election ho was iitrolllng around the Tenderloin mentally blowing in the 5S5UOO on a winter trip clown the Nile and a few more hunches of Improved real cfalato down on Long Island when he fell In with a gang of Democratic looters and kldders Tammany friends of his They nailed him In doorways and told him lhat ho was as good as on the locks of a lee shore If he woo betting on the rough rider condidato At first he laughed them away and fanned them with his expressions of eompleto confidence lint his beta were already won that tie result was already In but after a few hours tner earnest prognostications begun lo tci on him When he met Tim Sullivan and Tim told him tluit Judge Van Wyck wua the goods In bulk and would win Jn a romp George began lo gnaw on his muslachu pretty hard By nightfall George was In seven different kinds of a stampede and he commenced to do the panicstricken hedge Ho had to work like a galley slave right up to the mldulgbt hour In the corridors 01 the Hoffman house and the Fifth Aye nut hotel lo untie that big 55000 knot but lie finally gave way wIth It So convinced had he become by midnight that Judge Van Wyck would win out that time last bet he made before turnIng turn-Ing In after he had hedged off every dollar of his 55000 beta on Mr Roosevelt Roose-velt was a 510000 wager that the Democratic candidate would win It was an outandout flop of course When it was announced on the evening of election that Mr Roosevelt had got under the wire lirt with at least 15000 plurality I suppose that George Wheelock was easily the soreit and wrathlest Individual thai ever slood right In the middle of Broadway and cussed out loud for fifteen straight minutes The hedge on the day before had set him back Just a cute 05000 lie 585000 lhat he had stood lo win on Mr Roosevelt as his bets were originally or-iginally placed and ihe 10000 that in the final hour of Jils siampcdc he had wagered on lie chances of Judge Van Wyck They tell me that on the night of the election George went lo bed and stayed there for three days chewing on the bed clothes and making remarks re-marks as to his own personality und men taI i ty that werent flattering He took a long swearoff then on the bet hedging game and last summer at ShcepBhcad Bay when his advisers suggested to him that hed better hedge out on a 10000 bet that he made on a horse that was seen to be lame on his way to the post George all but threw things at them as he told Ihem that hed ralher lose 100000 lhan ever do another piece of bodging He wan right In standing pat for the lame horse won In u walk Washington Post |
