St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-25
PLAYED FOR SUCKERS.
minneapolis Bloods Done Up by a Short
Track
AND A CROOKED SPRINT RACE
They Knew They We're Played, and
ALI They DID Was Grin and
Bear It.

Probably no city in the United States
has had a greater run of professional
athletic contests of one kind or another
during the past three years than Min
neapolis, and certainly no city has been
so thoroughly worked" At one time
there has been run of smuggling
matches, at another time wrestling
contests, and at another time bicycle
races and contests of all descriptions.
One has run as long as the boys would
give it support and then another takes
its place only to be supplanted by some
thing else, and when the entire cata-
logue has been completed they have
started at the beginning and gone
through the list time and again.
Probably there have been few
contests decided OH their merits,
but they have been so few that it would
be hard to place them. Why the boys
have allowed themselves to be gulled
in this way is easily explained. 1t is an
easy matter to put up a job in any of
the contests that have been named, and
only few can tell when it is done. The
contests are carried through very scien-
tiiically and Skillfully, and in most
cases they have been drawn-that is.
the smuggling matches, but occasionally
they have ended in knock-outS, when
the sports lave demanded such an out
come. Then the boys have not lost
much. comparatively speaking, each one
a dollar or two, and for that reason they
have allowed themselves to be bled.
But the aggregate amount which the
participants have realized has generally
been large, and when division has
been made they have been we'll
satisfied. Of course they make a
great many bluffs that everything
is on the square and say that their eX-
penses are so large that they are often
left in the hole. All this must be taken
with considerable allowance. But the
boys have been worked lately in an
are not ignorant OF the fact. This time
it was in running race, contest not
entirely unknown to Minneapolis men.
A man can quickly be caught in this
way but once, for, unlike the previous
contests. he gets stuck for quite sum.
1t was by mere accident that this
came to light, and in the following man
ner:
A few weeks ago reporter, who, by
the way, has seen a good many sprint
races, ran across crowd of sports at
the Minnehaha driving park, and recog-
niZing one of the party, asked what was
up. He said that the sprint runners,
Kettleman and Crawford, were going to
run and show the boys what they could
do, hoping that they would back Craw-
ford against an Australian runner by
the name of Gent, who had beaten Ket-
tleman in st. Paul short time ago to
the tune of $1,000. This was the way
Kettleman put it: Iran across this
Gent and did not recognize him as
county, and as he has just come here l
did not know him. He wanted to run,
and, although [ was out of condition, l
thought | could beat him. So we ar
ranged match for about $1,000; dis
lance seventy-five yards. He beat me
about foot. | want to get even with
him and have found this man Craw-
ford, who is the fastest man in the
world, and want to match him against
this Gent and do him up." Well, to
return to the Minnehaha driving track,
they stripped and ran fifty yards sew
eraI times in very fast time, beating
the record. Finally they ran 100 yards
and were differently timed by three
watches, one making it 81, another
81 and the third 81 seconds, which any
one, who knows anything about such
races, knows is more than remarkable.
The reporter told his friend that he
thought that something was wrong and
them for suckers and that he would
measure the track after they left.
which he did with the result
that the track was between four and
five yards short. He informed several
of his friends of his findings. and also
that he thought they were trying to do
the town. This came to Ketterman's
ears, and he was very red-headed d, but
said that he thought from the time made
that something was wrong, and had
measured the track the next morning
and had found it four and one-quarter
yards short. Nothing more was said,
and the race had passed out of the re-
pOrter's mind, when he heard that the
match had come Off at Hudson, Wis,
and that Crawford had won. 1t was
thought that everything had gone off all
right, as nothing was said. But few
days after the race one of the reporters
friends told him that the boys were
worked, but were saying nothing, be-
cause they did not care about its COM
ing out. They got caught for from
81 800 to $4,000, he said, and in this way:
Crawford told the boys to back Gent
and he would throw the race. This
they did, but Crawford did not do as he
said, but won the race. One fell
low lost 5000 and several smaller sums.
One man was seen in regard to the
race and all that he would say was that
Kett leman claimed that Crawford had
thrown him. But this will hardly go,
for it was Kettleman and Crawford who
did up the saloonkeeper at Duluth for
S1,2 90, which was reported in the pa
pers some time ago. The reporter
found an old gentleman who, it was
said, had been caught, but he did not
know anything about ''job." He said
he went down to Hudson and sat on the
veranda of the hotel and saw the race,
and thought that the man who could
win won it. When the reporters friend
was asked what the boys did when they
found that they had been done up, he
replied that they did like the old gen
on the veranda.