THE DEAD ALIVE.

NZ Truth, Issue 57, 21 July 1906, Page 5

THE DEAD ALIVE.

PLOTTING SPORTS WHO FELL IN.

"He Who Diggeth a Pit."

Eketahuna Horsey Men Caught m Their Own Trap.

The recent Wellington Racing Club's meeting was responsible for a dreadful tragedy— from the point of view of two "sports"— but a delightful comedy from that of the intended victims of the "joke," and the general public, when the story spread. It appears that a certain party who dabbles professionally m racing travelled from Eketafruna to Trentham to attend the race meeting, and from there, on the first day, he sent a wire to ,his pal -m the town he had left, purporting to be an advice to him to back Narcotic for the Parliamentary Handicap.

With a generosity that m itself a- ' roused suspicion that all was^not what it seemed, the pal started round! the town showing the telegram to all the sporting men, of course with the intention of inducing them to back Narcotic, which as he himself read the wire, by p re-arrangement with his partner m the "joke," meant that he thought he knew they'd be backiner a dead 'tin . The sports "jerryrumbled" at once ; the game was too transparent, and finding that he could not oblige any of them wtith a, bet oa such information, the gentleman felL back on those always soft. marks, the local barmaids, hotel slaveys and other feminine "snaps." The evidence of the tele-, gram was quite' enough for these silly geese and they "came like water" and entrusted his gills ,with their money, to put on Narcotic. With a., sockful of silver and gold, thus obtained, Mr Sport felt so good that he went about buying booze with the girls' money, and kidding himself what a devil of a smart fellow he was. He even went so far as to let the cat out of the bag as. to the real meaning of the telegram, "m strict confidence," to a pal or two. and altogether he was bursting with a sense of his own extraordinary cuteness. Then the blow fell ! For once the silly geese scored off . the wily fox. When the result of the Parliamentary Handicap was wired to Eketahuna and Mr Smartman read that the dead had come to life, you might have heard a church spire drop. You might, hut it would have been difficult, over the roars of anguished rage, emitted by that jokish gentleman. Evidently Narcotic had not been dead, but sleeping, perhaps under the influence of a narcotic, and had awakened m time to. hop out and win his race. However, to do Mr Smartman justice, he faced the music and paid his lady-punter • pets m full, and as the gelding paid nearly £20 on the totalisator, the two sporty blolces' "little joke" cost them extremely dear ; the more so as^the dear girls got onto their obliging friends' lurk and not only have the ha ha on him, but have unanimously resolved to refrain from trusting ' him m future ; so he has no chance of "getting it back another day."