AND OTHER SKETCHES 121 



MEERY DAY" TIP. 



Whew ! but those Montrealers had it served up to them 

 hot and strong that winter. Certain of the wise citizens 

 of the Eastern metropolis became acquainted the summer 

 before at the Bel Air meeting with some horse owners 

 whose occupation is more of touting than training. After 

 that meeting closed in August the tipsters kept the wires 

 busy sending on ' ' sure ' ' things to their Montreal clients. 



When the New Orleans meeting started, then the tout- 

 ing game commenced in earnest, and considering the con- 

 ditions on which the touts were doing business, viz., put 

 up nothing and draw half the winnings, it is not surpris- 

 ing they kept the wires warm with their information. One 

 of the mo-st persistently touted horses, both that fall and 

 all winter, had been Dave S. A syndicate had been formed 

 and the final wind-up of investments on that in-and-outer 

 was a total loss of over $2,500. Hope again told its flat- 

 tering tale with others, but the blanks so far outnumbered 

 the prizes that outsiders wondered the northerners did 

 not shut down on the southern tipsters. 



Just about the time they were getting tired of invest- 

 ing more money in lobsters they were favored with a 

 brand new, double-dyed-in-the-wool, thirty-seven-inches- 

 to-the-yard article that was guaranteed to be more sure 

 than taxes. Aurora never gilded the sky with more bril- 

 liant promise than the New Orleans confederacy pictured 

 the absolute certainty of their latest triple-riveted, besse- 

 mer steel, armor-plated, double-turreted certainty. No 

 anarchist leader was ever sworn to more inviolable sec- 

 recy than the Montreal chosen ones — these, about six in 

 number — who were warned to get ready for the most san- 

 guinary slaughter of the whole winter season. A tele- 

 graph code, as secret as the grave, was in use, and day 

 by day the Montrealers waited for the fateful news that 



