The daffy Jills and Jacks of Broadway, the people of the racetracks and back-room crap games are gathered here in twelve of Damon Runyon’s most hilarious stories. Here is Ambrose Hammer, the newspaper scribe who tangles with a strip-dancer, a talking parrot, and a character whose noggin meets with the proverbial blunt instrument. Here is Fatso Zimpf, the horse-player who doubles for Santa Claus in Palm Beach and saves the romance of a beautiful but dumb zillionaires. And then there is “The Sky,” King of the galloping dominoes, who bets his soul against a two-dollar bill and winds up as the drummer in a street-corner mission band. In short, here is a collection of swift stories about sentimental toughs with down-to-earth vigor and lusty laughter. Even the briefest acquaintance with them will show why Damon Runyon’s public is so fantastically loyal.