St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-14

HIC JACET TOURNEY.
The Wild and Woolly Fake
Turns Up Its
Toes.
Disappointed Athletes at Min
nehaha Driving Park
Yesterday.
Fierce Fires of Disappoint-
ment Alone We're
Squenched.
A Scheme Which Played
Against Big Chances and
Lost.

yesterday afternoon, the first and last
annual tournament of the Northwestern
Tournament association, aged two
months and two days. Requiescat in
the hole" That was the appropriate
epitaph which some wag pinned to the
gate post of the driving park yesterday
evening. The programme laid out for
the third day of the tournament was
not attempted at all Yesterday, and the
general confusion.
The history of the great tournament
is brief and more or less exciting, eS-
pecially to the army of people who are
out of pocket on its account. About two
months ago the brilliant scheme was
conceived in the minds of L. II. Turner,
S. 7. Stone and a man named Harkins,
who Immediately dubbed themselves
the Northwestern Tournament aSsO-
citation and flooded the entire
Northwest with flaming bills an
nouncing that the first annual tOurna-
ment of the association would be held
Sept. 10, IL and II at Minnehaha Driving
Park, Minneapolis; that s., 900 in prizes
was offered and that the tournament
which was to include fire companies,
bicyclists and brass bands, would be the
grandeSt ever known in the West. EX-
tremely liberal prizes were offered in
nearly all the events, and the bills
made arrangements for lavish
display of fireworks and the reckless
expenditure of money IN the burning of
a three-StOTy frame building for the
benefit of the vast thTOngS of people
who were supposed to be in readiness to
into the grand stand the moment the
big show opened. The plan seemed
plausible enough. and several fire COM
panieS from Dakota and Mime
sofa towns, together with various
brass bands and no end of bicyclists
entered for the various contests. and
everything promised well. The man
ayers advertised literally in all the pa
pers and the tournament was appar-
emily booming. The boom fell with a
dull, sickening thud, however, and
when the parade came out on the morn
ing of the first day there were three fire
companies in place of twenty and the
procession was made up largely of beer
wagons and furniture vans. This had
rather dampening effect on the citi-
Zens, and to the surprise of all no one
was killed in the crush at the gate when
time was called.
Nearly one hundred people paid to
see the first days performances, WHICH
were really creditable and interesting,
and collectively and individually the
Northwest Tournament association was
sick. The management hoped for bet
ter things the next day, promised that
more bands and fire companies would
arrive, appealed to the newspapers
for aid, and the latter re-
sponded by booming the thing hand
sOmely. But, notwithstanding the
elixir of life so freely pumped into the
thing by the press, the corpse failed to
revive, and even the noble efforts of the
Flambeau club were insufficient to lead
to recovery, causing Only a temporary
rally, and Yesterday, with despairing
gasp which shnck the grand stand, the
tournament died.
The events scheduled for the last two
days took place, but all the contests
were for phantom prizes, and not one
cent of the purses has ever been paid
to the winners.
Yesterday the rain kept everyone at
home in the morning, and the associa
ton got discouraged and quit. The de-
serted village must have been quite
brisk, lively town cOmpered to the driv-
ing park at $50 yesterday. Turner and
his companions in woe hadn't shown up
since morning, no race had been
called, the man who OwneS the
building refused tc consent to the
proposed cOnfagration until some re-
turn for the cost of the property was
guaranteed, as this was the principal
attraction of the programme, and Messrs.
Turner and Stone were absent, no one
could be found with gall enough to bleed
visitors for so cents each, so great
many came in free and didn't get
their moneys worth at that.
while others paid % cents to some of
the employees who saw chance to
make sure of part of their wages. A
band which came on the scene of in
action at an early stage of the game,
footed three doleful toots and went
away again. Capt. Foster, of the fire
siSting of firemen Hay, Hamilton,
Corey, Snyder. Guise and Murphy, gave
fine exhibition of pompier drill and
life saving apparatus. Hay taking the
honorS by leaping from the fourth
story into the life net.
Finally Secretary Turner showed up.
He seemed calm, cool and collected in
spite of the unfortunate ending of his
glittering fake. and told the bicycliStS
and employees about the grounds who
were clamOring for money to appoint a
committee to take charge of affairs, put
on as good a cycle programme as posi-
pie ana divide the afternoons receipts,
He then declared himself out of it and
went away to seek retirement and
needed rest.
The scheme suggested by him was
adopted, and the bicycle club put on a
two-mile race, open to all amateurs:
consolation race, open to those who
hadn't won any Of the atmospheric
purses, and the third heat of the five
mile professional race between Dingley
and Bell. All the gate receipts which
found their way into the hands of the
committee amounted to 50 which was
divided among eleven wheelmen and
twenty-one employees. 1t is Shrewdly
suspected, however, that the only man
connected with the outfit who didn't get
the worst of it was the fellow who
handled the cash yesterday, but no one
seems to know who he is.
There are great many outstanding
bills which will never be paid, includ
ing bills for printing, newspaper ad-
yertising, work on the grounds and the
rent of the park for yesterday, it hav-
ing been paid for the first two days.
The merry managers claim to be losers
by about 81 ,0U0, although it has been
charged that they went into the enter
prise on their own nerve and that they
still have it intact.
1t is also asserted that the Flambeau
club did not play on the square, and
that by repeating process il. the sale
of tickets, which was under the man.
agement of the clubs committee, only
=. {ol- 10 oh i,,cf
a supposed attendance of 1000 or over.
The managers are likely to be be-
sieged by crowd of angry creditors I'M
less they assume the same aerifOrm con-
dition for which the purses have become
so justly noted. The bands, fire COM
panies, cyclists and other contestants
are all more or less eXcitable when they
speak of the tournament, and there was
good deal of heated discussion on the
grounds yesterday.
In the races which were put on, Bell