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Show LAST MEMBER OF FAMOUS IRWDEAD e Great Plunger, Davy Johnson, John-son, Passes After Lingering Linger-ing Illness. NEW YOBK, Jane SO. Tha death here yesterday of David 0. Johnton marked the patting of the latt member of the beat known trio of bet tort on the American turf. Tha other two were "Pittsburg Phil" and "Plunger" Walton. 1 Perhaps the (latest Plunger f these three was Johnson. He differed from the others in that he was a layer as wett-r- a-twrtemf "Tmre" and when horses were not running he found other methods of tempting fortune. His eronies tell a story of his spending spend-ing hours in a room in a local hotel one DAVID 0. ("PAVY") J0HN8QK. night, a few vesrs ago, flipping a cent with Theodore Hostetler of Pittsburg at 1000 a flip. Johnson's winnings at the race track were very heavy. After the latt race one afternoon, a few veara ago, he told his friends he had won 52.fttW on the afternoon's speculation. Bets of Dln,-000 Dln,-000 on a race were not unusual for him and Bass and he would go higher, especially espe-cially on the great Roschen. But the monev that eame to him in hig chunks melted awav just as easily as his friends say ' that he left little of the fortunes he won. Johnton was shout SO years of age. After one of his hig winnings John son bought Rosehcn, the famous sprint er. He trained Rosehcif into a condition condi-tion that made the horse invincible over a six or seven-furlong route and for a time Johnson and Roseheh were features of the big turf meetings. - In 19w1. when Roseben won the Car ter handicap at Aqueduct,, ohnson took out of the ring many times the $7850 purse that Roseheo earned. When at last Rosehcn had seen his best dava Johnson could not believe and kept on betting even-thing he had on the jVg horse. Johnson 'a existence was an exciting one. His worst enemy, if he had one, will admit that he never was a piker and frequently Roseben had carried to victory the last penny that his master had in the world. Decadence De-cadence of the metropolitan turf, Johnson's John-son's friends believe, is all that prevented pre-vented bim from rising to his former prosperity, for time and again he was able to recoup after losing all. Roseben was a woman's saddle horse when mentioned in print last. |