Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-03-23
Bad ~ Taken In.

MAsY VIII remember the race which
occurred at Colorado Springs during the
nollda,ys between Stone and Crandall.
oton e's fleetness of foot was the pride and
boast of his fellow-townsmen of Colorado
Springs. They were ready and anxious
to stake their all on his running. He
published challenge to anybody and
everybody. Crandall, Michigan runner
with talented pair of legs, and fame
as wide as the continent itself, heard OF the
challenge. He came to Colorado, hired
out as a wood-chopper on the Divide,
and in due time accepted Stones chal-
lenge. The sports of Colorado Springs
said it didn't lay in any wood-chopper's
legs to outrun their man Stone. 1t was
said that So 900 changed hands on the re-
suit. Well, the wood-chopper ran right
away from his competitor, and the dis
comfiture of the sports was something
fearful to contemplate. Crandall gave up
his job of wood-chopping, and has been
travelling about the Territory enjoying
himself.
turned up in Pueblo He arrived with a
buli-train from Trinidad, and claimed to
have come from New Mexico He COM
menced Boosting about his fieetness, and
said he could run away from anybody in
the Territories. This boast, of course,
reached the ears of the Colorado Springs
sports, who, seeing their opportunity to
get even on late losses, hunted up Gran
dali and pitted him against Slade. The
race, as already known, came off at Pueblo
day or two since, and was witnessed by
thousand people. Crandall was backed
by big delegation of the sporting men
of Colorado Springs. They shook their
money in the faces of the PueblOites, and
covered bets of any sort. They told
few persons confidentially that Crandall
could beat anyBody-that he was the
champion Of the world. The sports of
Pueblo, not liking the bantering and tan
TALKING manner of the Colorado Springs
delegation, put up a thousand Or two on
Slade, just for luck and the credit Of the
town. Meanwhile the runners were quiet
IL,
the time for the race arrived, had become
intense, Crandall's hackers putting up
money and jewelry by the hatful. The
Colorado Springs delegation staked all
the greenbacks, and then put up several
gold watches, one or two breast-pins and
several nger-rings. The race was run
seventy-fiv yards-and CrandalI came out
two feet behind!
The runners W ere scarcely seen again
during the afternoon. That evening they
boarded a train on the A T s. S. f. road,
dropped into a seat together, and went
away eastward, chuckling in their sleeves
over the trick they had played on the
gudgeOns of Southern Colorado The
man Slade was not Slade at all, but John
ny Casal, a celebrated French Canadian
runner, and an old friend of Crandall's.
The two had put up the Job and divided
the winnings, some 5000 in money and
half bushel or SO of watches, breast pins
and finger-rings. Casal, 0ltds Slade, had
come in by the A. T. & S. F. Road and
crossed over 10 Trinidad, and thence to
Pueblo, to give plausibility to his claim of
being New Mexican. He is an odd
looking man, with bumped shoulders
and crooked legs, and about forty-five
years of age. He is a wonderful athlete.
As he finished the race he threw a somer-
sault and bounded off like an elastic ball.
Crandall is much younger man and is
made of equally springY and elastic ma
terial.-DenUer Nea1s.