13° 



The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



yes ! I tell you i tink good horse, good driver ; 

 no good horse, bad driver." 



Carpenter says that the Frenchman being 

 an oracle among his people, his words had the 

 desired effect with the crowd, but no more so 

 than the shift in his own feelings, which in- 

 stantly dropped from away above par to the 

 zero notch. Besides this, the longer he has 

 been in the training business the more from 

 year to year he has realized the entire truth 

 of what the Frenchman said that aay at the 

 Woonsocket track. Nobody could ever accuse 

 Jimmie's head of swelling since, either. 



If there is one thing Carpenter had rather 

 do than eat it is to have a social game of 

 cards ; about a three-dollar limit suits him to 

 the king's taste. It is notorious, too, that while 

 an expert with the pasteboards, yet Dame For- 

 tune has a habit of grinning at the other 

 chaps in the game. Any person less good- 

 natured than Carpenter would be calling on 

 all of the gods of wrath at the way good hands 

 went wrong. Being indifferent, though, he 

 simply keeps the attention of those present 

 to — "There, that is the kind of luck I have; 

 just to get a full house now when a bigger one 

 is out. Did you ever see anything like it in 

 your life?" 



But an incident occurred at the opening 

 meeting at Rigby Park (catastrophe, Jim 

 would say). Most of the horsemen were 

 stopping at the Preble House, and in the even- 

 ing quite a good game of poker was started, 

 there were nine in the game. Being all jack- 

 pots none would, in this instance, open the pot, 

 and the stem had been sweetened fifty cents 

 by each at the table. The dealer was one 

 whom Carpenter had taught the mysteries of 

 poker about a year before — that is a few 

 moves toward the simpler points of how the 

 hands came in the way of rank in winning 

 when the show-down came, and by the way 

 the novice was a well known turf reporter. 



Sitting under the guns, next to the dealer, 

 was Jimmie ; just beyond him was Frank New- 

 hall, owner of Bunco, Jr., 2:12 1-2; then came 

 Allen Lowe, at the time on the Boston Globe, 

 while around the table were horsemen of note. 

 The story weaves about the ones mentioned. 

 Jim had three aces all the time, but passed to 

 get a play. Newhall was strong, he supposed, 

 with three kings. Lowe had a likely looking 

 four flush. Thinking to raise the one who 

 would open the pot, Newhall, like Jim, also 

 passed. None of the rest had jacks or better, 

 so it went to the dealer, who tossed a five- 

 dollar chip into the center of the table, and 

 the play was on. 



Right off the reel Jim boosted it a "fiver" 

 more, putting in a couple of blues, and New- 

 hall gave the pot a further toss with three 



blues. Lowe studied his hand for a minute 

 and then stayed for the fifteen dollars. All 

 of the rest passed. The dealer certainly had 

 opened with something choice, as he saw the 

 raises and went five better. Again Jim raised. 

 Newhall only stayed, as did Lowe. The deal- 

 er came back with another raise, which caused 

 Carpenter to just stay, as did the other two. 



Jim took two cards, Newhall the same, while 

 Lowe and the dealer called for one. The 

 dealer immediately bet a blue, and Jim raised 

 him one; Newhall called, he having so much 

 money in the pot, while Lowe passed, not hav- 

 ing filled. The dealer was full of confidence 

 and came back at Jim again, causing the latter 

 to call, and so did Newhall. The dealer showed 

 down an ace-high heart flush, and swept in 

 the pot. 



The deal had passed around to Lowe when 

 suddenly Carpenter said to the novice that he 

 should not have forgotten when splitting 

 openers, in drawing to a flush, to put his dis- 

 card so as to show it after the play was over. 

 This to prove he had openers. 



''But I didn't have a pair in my hand to 

 split," replied the novice. 



"What in the world did you open that pot on 

 then?" inquired our worthy Jim. 



"Why, I had four hearts and caught the 

 ace. What is the matter; isn't this a gentle- 

 man's game?" Well, the yell that went forth 

 when the explanation was made could have 

 been heard clear to the race track. On Jim's 

 part he was left guessing whether the novice 

 was bluffing him or telling the truth. The 

 story of the poker hand got noised around, 

 and for weeks everybody was asking Carpen- 

 ter if he had sat in another gentleman's game. 



Twenty-five or more years ago it was gen- 

 erally considered that over the half-mile tracks 

 everything "went." Of course, in time the 

 practice wiped the majority of the two-lap 

 circuits off the racing map, but while it lasted 

 it was the case of the big fish eating the small- 

 er ones. The following trick Carpenter turned 

 in a race over the Lawrence, Mass., track, and 

 it can be illustrated under the caption of "Dia- 

 mond cut Diamond." While the caption has 

 been used before, it is the one best to 

 describe how Jimmie handed the wise men a 

 lemon. 



Among the horses Jim landed at the meet- 

 ing with was the chestnut trotter, Archie B., 

 2.18 1-4. The owners attempted to buy a few 

 tickets on the horse, but his merits had pre- 

 ceded him, and the frame-up was not consid- 

 ered necessary to count in the owners. The 

 judges had got the tip to make Archie B. win 

 at all hazards. In the same event Henry Pope 

 had Pilot. It looked like he was the next best 

 in the lot, so when the betting started with 



