THE TOUT. 



"Come on! I'll bet you two to one 



I'll make him do it! Will you! Done." Holmes. 



You have seen him. You have heard the rattle of 

 his brassy voice as he offers to bet a dollar on the 

 outside after the judges have given the word. There 

 may be a few who have cause to remember the crafty 

 confidence man of the turf, as touts come in all colors 

 and flourish in all lands. They swarm in the wake of 

 the gallopers and "sweat" from town to town with 

 the trotters. Wherever there is betting you will find 

 them. They manage to hang on by their eyelids, but 

 how, none but themselves can tell. To an outsider, 

 the mysteries of a crap game are simpler than the 

 wriggling of the tout from one end of the season to 

 the other. 



The average tout's apparel and wardrobe, like a 

 fresh water fisherman's, depends on the run of "suck- 

 ers." If they are plentiful, nothing from patent 

 leather shoes and a diamond pin up to a swell hotel is 

 good enough ; but the fall conies as sure as fate. 

 Turn the average tout loose with money and he blows 

 himself. Wit runs out when wealth goes in, but re- 

 turns as the roll decreases. There are exceptions, 

 however, as there has been cases where the dollar 

 bettor climbed the ladder of success and settled in 

 Easy Street. 



Stable secrets are the tout's stock in trade. When 

 he finds an empty ear it does not take him long to fill 



