St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-07-19
sWHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS
BE.o
The LyndonviI1e Crowd ''See the Ele-
phant., sfBuck the Tiger" and All
Turn into Clowns.

|
phant." .tBuck the Tiger" and All
Turn into Clowns.
Fer ways that are dark and tricks Opaque,
| Wallace's circus just takes the cake.
The arrival of Wallace's circus in
Lyndonville Friday was hailed with
delight; it's departure was followed
with curses and gnashing of teeth by
several hundred fools. The prOprie-
tors had presented a first class circus
and had also f1eeced the fools out of
over $1,000. Hence these tears.
Fortune seemed to favor the gam
blers and what fun they had. The
railroad shops were closed, the pay car
came along at 2 o'clock just when
money was growing scarce, and the
only lawyer in town did not give the
boys very encouraging advice as to
how to get it back. The states attor-
ney was in Hardwick, the sheriff away
and no st. Johnsbury lawyer arrived
on the scene of action until the troupe
was about ready to depart. The town
authorities and the police did nothing
and the deputy sheriff and constable
helped the police. Late in the day
the boldest of the officers advised the
gamblers to quit and those who had
not already left town obeyed the Off
GERS.
The gamblers had four little games
which are not so popular in Lyndon
vile today as they were last Friday.
One was the old "three- card monte"
trick played with three walnut shells,
the bystanders putting up money on
the shell they supposed the willy trick
ster had put black pea under. The
pea always "bobbed up serenely" un-
der the wrong shell. Another game, a
variation of roulette, consisted of
dropping marble through cone to
see if it falls in pockets marked ST., So,
SIS, $40, etc. Sometimes it did, but
most always it didn't. The game of
shaking loaded dice was carried on in
side the tent and drew a big crowd.
The candy peddler drove thriving
trade in selling painted candy at SO
cents stick occasionally dropping a
good sized greenback into the bag.
The greenback invariably went to the
peddler's cOnfederates in the crowd,
but as the victims did not know this it
always seemed to please them to see
the money flying around and so they
kept the ball a-rOlling. 1t was by ply
ing these innocent games that the cir
Gus men made first class clowns out of
the wise men of the North. ....~
The gambling fever fell on the just
and the unjust and men of all classes
and trades lost their heads and never
found them until the day after. Fun
ny, wasn't it 2 One worthy citizen of
the Vile tried to get three men to en-
dorse his note for $500 and then in de-
spair produced registered government
bonds which were refused by the cir
Gus men. Another tried in vain to
draw all his earnings from the savings
bank, amounting to several hundred
dollars, and on Saturday showered the
bank officials with thanks for refusing
him his deposit. One worthy Chris
tian lost nearly 800 but regained it
over in Morrisville the next day. Sew
eral lost nearly the same amount and
never recovered them while the num-
Der who lost small amounts will never
be known though the number will go
up into the hundreds. Farmers, clerks,
laborers, ETC., from all the surround
ing towns "saw the elephant" and feel
pretty sore over il.
After the monotony of gathering in
shekels had grown oppressive the
gamblers grew bolder and stole a
couple of watches and picked pockets.
H. III. Fry felt someone taking his
watch but the thief's cOnfederates
crowded around Mr.. Fry and the man
escaped. Mr.. Fry recovered $40 from
one of the gang at Morrisville which
fully covered his loss.
Judge Smith and lawyer Montgomery
of st. JOhnsbury reached the gambling
den late in the evening and advised
the deluded victims to communicate
with the states attorney and arrest the
parties at Morrisville. This advice
was needed and posse visited Nor
risville the next day.
The first man the Lyndonville
crowd met was the detective, so called,
of the show. A vigorous search re-
vealed the fact that most of the gam
blers were in another state, and it is
supposed they were then in LittletOn,
waiting for the circus to come on Mon
day. One of the gamblers saw the of
ficers and skipped but another who
was arrested requested all present to
present their claims. This was done
and in this way nearly $4O0 was re-
covered. The boys came back to st.
JOhnsbury on the circus train and
were shadOwed by the circus men but
not mOlested.
The men who we're 80 foolish to lose
their money find little sympathy ex-
cept from their brother fools, and the
public sentiment of the Vile is justly
indignant and unanimous in denounc-
ing the action or rather non n-action OF
the local authorities.
, Phenomenal Weather.
There was a cold snap last week uI
in this section of the country Thursday
and Friday The mercury drODDed t(