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Show Floods Not Responsible ForAllTistf Found in Louisville Hotel Lobby Br JOE WILLIAMS Special to The Telegram NEW. YORK, Feb. J A bellboy caught a fish In the lobby of a Louisville hotel yesterday. This was presented by tht wire services as one of the minor phenomena of the flood. But to most of us who make the annual pilgrimage to tha lovely old southern city at derby time it merely suggests and happily that things are get- Muncher third by four and" Mr. X took the horses all around the track giving an exciting, dramatic dra-matic account of aa imaginary race while sitting at a table in his hotel room reading from a list of entries. He brought Dog Face home in front a fur a hard drive, and then hung up. This, mind you, waa a good 10 minutes before the horses were due to go to thr post for the actual running of the race. - "That's the way they figure to run," sighed Mr. X, wiping a spread of emotional dew off his flushed brow. The sucker's got 200 smacks riding for me. Til do all right If But Mr. X didn't do all right Dog Face Wasn't In the money. It waa a big field, be waa pocketed and his jockey had to pull up to get fresh racing rvom. I menon this Incident by way of explaining why fishing in the lobby of a Louisville hotel leaves me unmoved. Having witnessed aa expert angler flip a line half way across the continent to snare sucker, the contrast strlkss ma as pretty feeble. "Well, you can't try to book that one again, can you?" I asked Mr. X. "What's the difference T There are a million others Just like him. They make the best kind of suckers, toe the kind that wants to cheat the other guy." ting back to normal out that way. There Is nothing unusual or unique about catching a fish In the lobby of a.Loulsville hotel. Except In this Instance the seaaon eeems to havs opened a bit prematurely. Normally the asason doesn't opsa until the horse crowd gathers. That's when the fishing in the lobbies lob-bies is really good--partlcularly for suckers. Out Louisville way they ellng tenderly to all the eld and sacred - eyeutJeiw ttetafr- Well, H sw aaered. Mien old. The tout Is aa eld tradition In raelng aad he tsnt made te feel exactly nil welcome wel-come la the land ef the eolorMla. The tout te aa expert fisherman. Hie expertneee In hooking the unwary un-wary aneker berdere ea sheer genius. There are soma soulless people who deem the tout a social parasite unworthy of the slightest respect In any grouping of humane, but there are others the more understandingwho understand-ingwho accept him warmly aa friend and counsellor, a source of light In a dark, complicated, befuddled be-fuddled sphere. Moat Noble Spirit Any fair minded persons, I think, must admit there .is something Innately In-nately fine and generous about a man who will gratuitously share his wisdom with another at the track. You can even be a total stranger, too. It makes no difference. differ-ence. Only among the touts has tha noble spirit of the brotherhood of man reached Its full frultlou. There was that time last spring, for example, when I beppened to be up In Mr. X's room. Mr. X was a peculiarly gifted gentleman. He not only knew how the races were going to be run, but he could sit down and describe to you how they would be run ever before the horses came out on the track. It seemed that Mr. X had a very wealthy friend, an ell man who lived In Dallas, Texas. Mr. X tout hie friend that en a certain day he waa going te telephone him the result ef the first race, play by play, ee te apeak, before the result re-sult could peesibly reach the local pool room by wire. . , "And whea you get It yea ge te the peel room and bet year head off," arged Mr. X. I found myself questioning the moral principles involved, especially espe-cially the character of Mr. X's friend In the oil country and wondering won-dering If this sort of thing was really fair to the unsuspecting operator oper-ator of the local pool room, but by this time the telephone was jangling and Mr. X's friend was on the other end. "Hello, hello." barked Mr. X "Well, they are now et the post There's a slight delay, there's they're off! Past the club house It was Dog Face by a length. Bangtail Bang-tail second by two lengths, Oa |