CHAPTER XXXVII 



MAKING A BOOK 



Raided — Charron as a Pupil — Newmarket — In the Red Cross— One and 



only " Henry " 



One of the great mistakes I made was taking the 

 New York Bar in the Rue Daunou, Paris. My pre- 

 decessor, Milton Henry, lost a packet over it, and it 

 was waste of time for me. However, with the war 

 coming, all I had to do with it was finished. I had 

 previously run a big bar, of course, in connection with 

 my billiard-saloon in New York, and knew a good deal 

 about the business, but — ^there is always so much to 

 learn. 



It has been said that I made a book in the Paris bar, 

 but I had nothing to do with anything of the kind. 

 Not that I have never made a book. I have — in New 

 York. I had rather a nice flat, and some of my friends 

 used to say to me : " Why don't you start booking at 

 your place ? There's every facility." So I started an 

 extra telephone and Charlie Hauser, a brother of the 

 great story-teller in Paris, was on the " piece-at-each- 

 ear " game. There used to be a pretty collection of 

 all nations up at my " apartment " : grafters, diamond 

 merchants, the knock-outs from the Balkan provinces, 

 and — others. We betted ready and settled after each 

 official result. They would have five, ten, fifteen, 

 twenty dollars on a horse, and sometimes fifty or a 

 hundred. There was no starting price, as understood 

 in England, but a list of prices would be put up and 

 they could take their choice. There was varying 



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