about noon
In the spacious corridors and big bar-rooms of the city 's hostelries the rich men of the section vied with flashily dressed strangers , in magnitude of wagers , and the gambling fever spread from these important centers to the very alleys of the negro quarters . Poor indeed was the old darkey who could not find two-bits to wager on the race ; small , indeed , the piccaninny who was not wise enough in the sophisticated ways of games of chance to lay a copper with a comrade or to join a pool by means of which he and his fellows were enabled to participate in more important methods of wooing fickle Fortune . Here and there and everywhere were the piccaninnies from Woodlawn , the Layson place , crying the virtues of the mare they worshipped and her owner whom they each and everyone adored , boasting of the wagers they had made , strutting in the consciousness that ere the moment for the great race came `` Unc '' Neb would gather them together to add zest to the occasion with their brazen instruments and singing . The `` Whangdoodles '' were the envy of every colored lad in town who was not of their high elect , and created , about noon , a great diversion upon one of the main streets , by gathering , when they were quite certain that their leader could by no means get at them , and singing on a corner for more coppers to be wagered on Queen Bess . The shower of coin which soon rewarded their smooth , well-trained harmonies , burned holes in their pockets , too , until it was invested in the only things which , on this day , the lads thought worth the purchasing -- tickets on the race in which the wondrous mare would run . Through the gay crowd old Neb was wandering , disconsolate , burdened with the melancholy news of the defection of the miserable jockey , looking , everywhere , for Miss Alathea Layson , but without success . He stopped upon a corner , weary of the search and of the woe which weighed him down .