The women particularly were most loyal to our bureau. The wife of a
young multi-millionaire of international prominence was one of our
most ardent followers. She would never think of putting down a bet
without first consulting Maxim & Gay's selections. On a notable
occasion, this lady arrived at the gate of the Morris Park race-track
with her husband, in their automobile, and took the long stroll to the
club-house. They were a trifle late for the first race; the horses
were already going to the post up the Eclipse chute.
Suddenly the lady discovered she had forgotten to purchase Maxim &
Gay's selections. Hastily calling her husband, she gave him a sharp
berating for not reminding her to buy the selections. They had a short
but earnest interview, which was suddenly terminated by the young man
doing a sprint of a quarter of a mile down the asphalt walk from the
club-house to the main entrance where the tips were sold by the
uniformed employees of Maxim & Gay.
Those who witnessed the sprint of the young financier attested to the
fact that he never showed as much swiftness of foot in his early
college days; but even his unusual speed failed to get him back on
time to acquaint his wife with the name of the horse selected by Maxim
& Gay for the first race, the race having been run and the Maxim & Gay
selection having won. The gentleman thereupon got a curtain lecture
from his better half that astonished and amused the society patrons on
the club-house balcony. Thereafter, he never forgot to get the Maxim &
Gay selections. In fact, he made assurance doubly sure by engaging the
colored attendant in charge of the field-glasses to deliver the
selections to him daily immediately upon his arrival at the course.
Our popularity with racehorse proprietors was mixed. Among the horse
owners with whom we transacted business was Colonel James E. Pepper,
the late noted distiller and owner of a big breeding farm and a stable
of runners. He was an ardent lover of horses, and maintained that his
native Kentucky knowledge of thoroughbreds afforded him an opportunity
to pick probable winners of horse-races better than any of "them ----
faking tipsters." He had great confidence in his judgment for a while.
THE KENTUCKY COLONEL FALLS IN LINE
After separating himself from much cash, while one of his very
intimate friends was "cleaning up" plenty of money on our selections,
he finally strolled into our office one morning and sheepishly stated
that one of his "fool friends" had asked him to step in and get our
"fool selections" for him. We explained that it was against our rule
to give out our choices before 12:30 P.M., whereat he grew exceedingly
wroth. He finally agreed to our conditions, paid his money and was
given an order to get the selections at the track-entrance from one of
our messengers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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