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negro had a small pea-shooter in one hand and a dozen 

 beans in the other. As soon as the time came for Sound 

 Money to make his run, if he was ever going to do it, the 

 lad began firing the beans at him from the little gun. Every 

 one struck him in the right spot, and the way he got a hustle 

 on himself and stepped to the front was a caution. In a few 

 jumps he was in the lead, and going at such a rate of speed 

 that nothing could overtake him. He won the race handily 

 from the heavily-backed favorite. 



" Now, who would have ever thought the old horse was 

 good enough to win that race ? " said Mr. Oldham disgustedly, 

 as he stood at the stable watching a groom bring in Sound 

 Money. 



" I did, boss," said the negro. " I had my pile on him, 

 and I made him win." 



" How did you do it ? " was asked. 



" Jes' shot him wif beans as he comes inter de stretch," 

 said the boy. " Ise got 'bout fohty-two dollahs, I specs.'' 



Al Spink, a sporting writer of the West, tells a good story 

 of how he once saved his life and that of his jockey by a 

 clever trick. He was in St. Louis with a string of outlawed 

 horses at the closing of the old Southside electric light track, 

 and not a cent in his pockets. By some means he succeeded 

 in persuading the railroad agent to ship his horses to Cairo 

 and give him a free pass to the same place. A fair was going 

 on in the little Illinois city, and it was Al's intention to make 

 a book and run his horses there. When he reached the city 

 he secured boarding quarters for himself and his jockey and 

 obtained credit for feed for his horses. Among the animals 

 he took with him was one known as Our Flossie. She was a 

 filly with chain lightning in her heels and as dainty a look- 

 ing little creature as one would wish to see. 



On the day of the fair opening a lot of towboatmen had 

 just been discharged from their boats, there having been a 

 coal run in the Ohio, and they were about the city spending 

 the money they had earned by the hardest kind of work for 

 the past two months. They all went to the fair and were 

 all ready to bet their money. Al mounted the block and 

 chalked up his odds on the first race. He put 4 to i against 

 Our Flossie, and the steamboatmen and everybody else gob- 

 bled it up as fast as possible. There was a scattering play 



