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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1906)
r '' . J,H! l! : 1 ill 1 ' ' ' I r r 1?'" Ill BY DEXTER MARSHALL THERE are spendthrifts today and there are plungers today, but It does seem to the old-timer that they are not to be classed with some of those whose money burnings and plunglngs used to occupy most space in the news papers. "Whitey" Langdon, who, after a dozen years of bad luck, "won a fortune in minute," lost it, but got it back again last year at Belmont Park; "Bob" Davis and Frank England, who started with nickels and won J100.000 in 1305; "Davy" Johnson, who only recently "went broke" again these are all plungers of suffioient impor tance to warrant being mentioned in other parts of the paper than the sporting page every once in a while. And there are John W. Gates and his partner. John A. Drake, and, until he was killed in the English railway wreck at Salisbury, there was Jack McDonald, who was said to have lost $100,000 before sailing on the trip that cost him his life. But where are the M. F. Dwyers,' the "Pittsburg Phils," the "Plunger" Watsons and the Riley Gran nans? Not to be found on tne turf today. Pittsburg Phil died last year. Riley Grannan is rarely heard of now neither is "Plunger" Walton. Dwyer, a paralytic, will never get on his feet again. Each of these men differed markedly from all the others, yet they all had something which the plungers of today do not seem to possess and their likes Vill not soon be seen again. Their "Killing' Kcpvp. All racetrack plungers have one charac teristic in common: the sort of nerve that enables them to bear defeat and accept the gifts of good and bad fortune with equal imperturbability, neither ' scowling when the fates are against them, nor jumping about and shouting for Joy when things are coming their way. In Michael F. Dwyer's palmy days his friends used to tell him that he would surely pay for his continuous smile, which changed not- whether he won or lost; that unless he gave way to his emotions occa sionally his nervous system would break down ultimately under the strain. When "Pittsburg Phil" George F. Smith first found It necessary to seek medical aid his physician told him he was in a bad way and would die unless relieved. "But," said the professional man, "no one can help you but yourself. And the only thing you cari do is to atop your con tinual self-repression. Wave your arms and shout once in a while when you win a pot of money. Say things out loud when vou lose, Let yourself go and you'll get well." Neither Dwyer nor Smith heeded the ad vice that was offered to them. Smith lasted a short time only, after discarding the advice to- "be natural," and Dwyer is "out of it" for all time. Riley Grannan Was like Dwyer and Smith In imperturb ability, and he. too. broke down, though possibly not from the same cause. None of tho three was ever a dissipated man; 1 ... 1 . f I r ! -1 'PI ' is , Ni: j i r i JA A? 11 - " Grannan and Smith refrained from using tobacco as well as drink. It would be hard to say which of these three men was most picturesque. More money passed through Dwyer's hands in the form of winnings and losings than has passed through the hands of any oth er betting man in the history of the American turf. It has been estimated that the aggregate was not less than JIO.000.000 in the 27 or 28 years that he was a prominent racing figure. Many of his methods were essentially different from those of either Grannan or Smith; the greatest difference being, perhaps, that while they were always looking for "long shots,' Dwyer often took the short end. It has been published repeatedly that he once bet $60,000 against J1O.O0O on Joe Cot ton. A variation of the tory placed the figures at S40.000 to SO0O. The real figures were J40.000 to $6000. On that day he had lost more money than he fancied, and so gave orders to his commissioners to bet enough to win $3000 at least. Working independently they accomplished double T1IE SUNDAY OREGONIAN. PORTLAND. AUGUST 19, 1906. , II., the result he asked for, but at such odds as made his friends gasp. It is 30 years since Michael F. Dwyer and his older brother, Philip J., two pros perous butchers of Brooklyn, began their turf career. They had for years fre quented the race tracks in the neighbor hood of New York; that year they went to the Saratoga meeting. The younger brother was greatly taken with the black colt Rhadamanthus, son of imported Leamington, and they bought the animal. Rhadamanthus started under the Dwyer colors on August 17, winning a purse of $500. and, of course, the "Racing Twins," as the Dwyers afterward came to be called, won much more than that in the betting ring. By the end of the season they owned three horses and at Its close their profits were $17,665. Small Returns and Quick Profits. For 16 years their partnership contin ued. During the latter of those years they. were dominant. But they did not agree in policy. Michael fought the book makers and did not bet to suit his broth er, making many wagers at as short odds as the famous bet on Joe Cotton. Unlike this bet, however, many of the others were unlucky. . Today Philip J. Dwyer is much more than a millionaire, while the younger brother's debts are said to be larger than his resources. But throughout all his ca reer Michael F. never once lost his nerve so far as any one ever was able to learn, nor was he ever accused of a dishonorable act. Philip J. always partook of the good things that came along, Michael F. lived a more abstemious life than most business men, and repeatedly might have retired worth a million or two had it not been for the fascination which "cinch bets" always had for him. "Small returns and quick profits" seems to have been his motto, and on that basis one day his best he won $190,000, but. the "bookies" had It all in a week. Once he lost $50,000 on Raceiand, the race being won by Tristan, and when he went to England in 1894 with Croker hi motto and the British bookies undid him badly. Still, he might have retrieved him self, even then, but he couldn't change his nature or his methods, and, by 1S99, his health and money both gone, the inert, and the newspapers that were wont to hall him as King of the Turf were forced to admit his downfall. There was one more brief period for him. however, in which the skies seemed bright. It came in 1903, when his son's horse Africander won the Suburban. They say he won nearly $50,000 on the race, and it was a pathetic sight to see "Charley" Dwyer. the son, run to the buggy in which his father sat and watched the race to clasp the older man's hand. . In his day Michael F. Dwyer, either singly or in partnership with his brother, owned Hanover, Luke Blackburn, George Kinney, Hindoo, Runnymede, Miss Wood ford and many other racers whose names were long household words in the racing world, but their splendid qualities were finally more than offset by his fatal short odds policy.' This Plunger Quit a Winner. The most enthusiastic even -of Michael F. Dwyer's admirers will concede that as a plunging bettor, "Pittsburg Phil" George F. Smith took the palm, for he was worth more than $3,000,000 when he died last year. He won by following a policy exactly the opposite of Dwyer's. 'f ittsburg Phil" was better known 4 throughout the whole country, i ably, than Dwyer. The latter undoubtedly han dled larger sums than the' former. In his whole racing career Dwyer never ,was a figure on the Western tracks, but "Pittsburg Phil" spent eight years in the West before his Eastern career of 15 years began. The Dwyers were well to do when they started Rhadamanthus, and even when they made their first bets; "Pittsburg Phil" was cutting corks at a cent a cork when, at 16, he made his first bet, and it was years after that before he owned his first racehorse. The Dwyers besan their racegolng for pleasure, only taking up racing as a business, no doubt, be cause there was1 more fun in it than there was in the butcher business. "Pittsburg Phil's" sole motive In going Into racing, apparently, was the making of money. He never seemed to take any pleasure in it, and he never seemed to get away from it for a moment. He never was ostentatious, but was as neat and careful in his dress as man well can be. He spent all his hours in the study of horses and "norseraclnsr, and though he often lost he never went broke. It was repeatedly said in his lifetime that he knew more about horses than any other living man, and he certainly had the best memory for "previous performances" that has ever been shown on the American turf. "Pittsburg Phil" never took "short odds," no matter how promising, hi methods being exactly the opposite of Dwyer's. ' Consequently) In the long run his results were exactly the re verse cf Dwyer's. When the latter won his winnings were much smaller than his risk had been: when he lost, his losings were much larger than the sums he had stood to win; Smith's winnings were always much larger than his risks and his losses much smaller than the sums he stood to win. Dwyer had to win much oftener than he lost, or "go broke": "Pittsburg Phil" could lose several times to one winning and still be ahead of the game. Dwyr took great pleasure in owning race horses: "Pitssburg Phil" declared that a man who proposed to make a fortune betting had no business owning horses. He owned a small string of racers for some years, nevertheless, but It was his un doing, for his horses were ruled off the track two or three years before his death, and he was requested to be careful about his bets. There was reversal of the ruling against him, but It came too late, and he never re-established himself as a race horse owner. There Is no doubt that "Pittsburg Phil" had foxy ways of his own. Soon after his first appearance in. the East the book- None Today Like the Dwyers, "Pittsburg Phil" "Coal Oil mak. at Monmouth Park, N. J., then in its early decadence, became so sus picious of his bete, which he almost ways won, that he had to send 20 husky farmers, who looked as if they had never seen a race track before, into the betting ring. They put down the money in $20 bets. It was a 40-to-l shot he had hired the farmers to play, and each bet meant $S00, so that the day was one of great profit for Smith. He managed this scheme with such unusual cleverness that no body on the track suspected its nature while It was being worked, and no one ever would have learned about it had not Smith himself told It years afterward in a burst of unusual confidence. Once at Sheepshead Bay he handed $500 to a well-known bookmaker to bet on a flve-to-one shot. As the bookie took the money and callied out "2500 to $500" Smith took off his hat and mopped his brow with his handkerchief. It was learned afterward that this was the signal for a young army of "commissioners" to bet all over the ring. The horse won, and Smith raked in a big pot of money, though nobody ever knew how much. In their palmy days "Pittsburg Phil" backed the Dwyers" horses, but later that wasn't profitable and he changed his course. He bought King Cadmus aid backed him persistently, losing so steadily that the public thought the horse was a "coun terfeit." Then came a day that old-time book makers refer to with a sigh. They laid 20 to 1 against King Cadmus, and King Cadmus won. So did Smith, to the tune of $100,000. On August 8, 1903, he won $50,000 on the winner of the Saratoga Special and $20,000 on other races $70,000. all told. On that day and on the days of King Cadmus' big winnings the lat ter once won $50,000 for him at Morris Park when asked about his big hauls Smith merely answered: "Well, I had a bet down and I won," only that and nothing more. The margin by which King Cadmus won his race was very close, being only "by a nose" on the day he earned his owner $100,000. Grannan, Gates, Drake. Riley Grannan's career was shorter than either Dwyer's or "Pittsburg Phil's." Grannan was an elevator boy In 1S90. Au thorities differ as to where, some saying Cincinnati, some Louisville, some New Orleans and some San Francisco. Anyway he was a Kentueklan by birth, and his first work on the track was peddling programmes, his second watch ing the horses as they raced for a veteran bookmaker, and the third acting as part ner of W. E. Applegate, known to all old timers. Applegate and ho made money. 39 Johnny5 so long as they wer together, but their first partnership was short, for Grannan scared the older man half to death by his rashness Applegate left the booih to get lunch and had Just about half finished when a friend told him Grannan was offering two points more than any other bookmaker on a certain horse. Coatlesri, ha.tless and breathless. Applegate rushed out and up to Grannan. "What in the double unmentionable have you done. Riley?" he shouted. "Bet our Ia.st dollar against the fav orite," answered Grannan. Applegate groaned. That was all he could do. except to wait and see. The favorite lost and the capital of Applegate & Grannan was Increased by 100 per cent, but Applegate declared the pace too hot and they separated. "That boy," said Appleirate. "would bet , the National gold reserve on a singlo chance. Not for me." They tell great stories of Grannan's winnings: how he won $100,000 at the old Winter track at Guttenburg. N. J., in two weeks, beginning with $S00: how he netted $25O.00i in five weeks in 1S95; how from $30 he once made $195,000 in a fort night, and so on. Many of these stories, like most of their sort, are exaggerations, but he was a wonder In his day. His career closed in 1903, with his physical condition impaired, though he is under 40. He Is remembered as about the politest bookmuker that ever was known. His "thank you" for a $2 bet from an unknown "piker" was as cordial In his best days as one for $20,000 from the Dwyers. Grannan Is still on the truck, though not cutting a great figure. John W. Gates and John A. Drake, rai'ing partners, can't be classed with the men mentioned above, of course, though they are certainly plungers. One of the most amusing things ever reported of Mr. Drake was his alleged Indignant announcement in 1902 that If the papers didn't stop saying he was winning $100,000 a day he should cer tainly withdraw from the track. He had won some money on the previous day, he admitted, but no such sum as the one mentioned, the actual figures being (for October 13. 1902): "Win nings, $21.9"iS; losings, $3000; to the good. $18,955." Two years earlier it was published that he hud won a cool million on the English tracks. He certainly did win a lot of money that year, and the Eng lish alleged that hi ways were such as they did not and could' not approve. The father of John A. Drake was F. M. Drake, one time Governor of Iowa and railroad president. John A.'s Eng lish racing experiences followed his being ordered abroad for rest in 1899. Next season the horses in his impro vised racing stable won 52 races, mors than the horses owned by any for eigner had won in a single season down to that time. Ho Is said to have won $400,000 in five weeks, a big enough story for all practical pur poses if the figures wero of half the magnitude. Few Picturesque Spendthrifts. There never was quite so much money thrown away every day as now. because there never was any such wealth before. All the same, the pres ent is without any really picturesque spendthrift of world-wide fame. The man with an income of $23,000 who spends $50,000 Is a genuine spendthrift; the man who spends ten times as much, or half a million, out of an Income of $750,000. is no spendthrift at all. The present best-known close approach to the spendthrift of other days Is Count Boni de Castellane, whose career as a, money burner seems to have been closed summarily by his wife's action for divorce. Harry Thaw, who killed Stanford White, has his own record as a money spender, too, but he was never able to make way with his capital, for his In come was restricted, and so he would hardly come under the spendthrift classification as above. Possibly the most picturesque sspend- . (Concluded on Fags 45.)
