Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-03

THIS DleSsed SUNDAY AFTERNOON, aIteI .
week of feverish hurry-be-quick at the
santa Ana fair. There is no lack of
good accommodations in that town for
place of it's sze. They have several
good hotels and one or two Spanish po-
sadas, where you can get your throat
cauterized with enchiladas and all that
sort of thing, you know. An yet, in
spite of an unusually attractive pro-
gramme at the track and pavilion dis
play far ahead of any Oregon state fair
that ever saw between 1869 and 1890 /;
in epite of all this, l say, was glad to
get home.
It was motley crowd that filed into
the Brunswick dining room and gave it's
orders to the calico stewardesses OF that
hostelry. All kinds OF nativities knocked
1elbows together, all kinds of vocations
jostled together in praidial struggle
with the inner man before going out to
the fair grounds. One of these odd con-
trails came up the very day that Silk
wood and Mckinney had their great
match. Opposite me sat a gentleman
with white cravat and general air
that betokened him as minister of the
gospel. Next to him sat a man who
earns his daily bread by the sweat OF his
brow in playing the manly and athletic
game of draw. poker. The preacher got
down towards his dessert trif1e ahead
of the sport and looked wlstfully at a
tempting dish OF muscat grapes that lay
beyond his grasp. He nudged the
gambler and asked:
'sMy friend, can you reach that dish
of grapes?"
The gambler went down into his vest
pocket and pulled out $40 piece, and
then says he:
"Yaas, dye want to bet can't?"
x*x
The last day of the fair is what old
"Rube" Basket used to call "the race
for the landlords purse," and Colonel
Gift, equally facetious in his way, used
to term it ''the getaway stakes" On
these occasions, the man who has real
ized the fallacy of ''straight tips" gen.
orally winds up the day by uDsuccess-
full attempts to borrow himself out of
town, and finally elects himself
nephew of Mr.. Solomon Isaacs, whose
place of bueiness is surmounted with
three golden spheres. Then he goes
home sadder, if not wiser man, and
swears he will never 60 to another fair
or buy another pool. But when the
next sair comes around, he will be there,
you may wager your cabeza.
~
One of these chronic gamblers is an
old Irishman whom [ have known
nearly 40 years. In 1868 l went out
with some wagon teams from Red
Rluff to Jordan creek in Idaho, and old
Paddy was the first man saw. crevicing
away not far from the present location
of the Del Mar mine. He was growing
then and he growls now.
II niver want to come to another
rooty bagy faihr. anniehow," !" says he.
"What do you call q ruta baga fair,
Pat?n was my query.
swell. place where they have
nothin' but jab races and nagur runnin'.
x*x
did not see anything like job race,
at the Santa Ana meeting, and never in
my life did see man whom | thought
more competent to preside as the senior
Judge of meeting that Mr.. Peasants,
president of the Santa Ana association.
1t is my regret that he is not selected as
presiding judge of our fair He is GER
tainly the equal OF the man they talked
of importing from San Francisco. and
by long odds superior to any man l saw
here at the last fair. Had he been a
judge Of the great free-for- all, Wanda
and Silas Skinner would have been
ruled out in the second heat, and there
would have been no such far
cical decision as characterized the
fourth heat of that race. Again / ex-
~ ,ok hn
ing hired by our local board, whose
members might have learned something
from him.
Coming home on the train Sunday
morning there were a funny lot of
featherless owls sitting around the
smoking car, and nodding their heads
to unjoint their necks. Up at is just
trife early for men who had not re-
tired till midnight. Only one of the
outfit was able to sit up straight long
enough to tell gag; and this is what
he gave me concerning new system Of
training and sweating men into the
pink of condition.
K*x
On the morning of Friday. the day of
the great Silkwood- Mckinney contest,
lOm OFluu &OC up obTiy anu Weut Ouu
to work one of the STEAMBOAT colts, con-
fded to his charge. Nick Covarrubias
took look into his room and found
him gone, but in the bed lay his trot-
ting partner, the owner of Steinway, jr.
Come here" said the chevalier de
cholera morbus," get out Of de bed. 1t
ees nueve horas and de early worm
catcha de bird, tambien sond esleep."
"Oh, no." pleaded the somnolent
man. "you go away and let me sleep a
while longer"
"Nunca, amigo" said Mr.. Hydropho-
bious; ''you shall crawl out arriba, or
I'll swab the floor wild yez till dere's not
enough left to make almuerzo for de
bedbug."
But the snorer didn't scare worth q
cent. He rolled over on his starboard
side, and made more noise than whole
drove of pigs. Don Nicholas looked at
him moment and then soliloquized: !:
"He ees fat-he will scrape out, all de
sem as Mac Kin ME !" No sooner said
than done. Nick ran into the adjoining
room and lugged off two or three blank
cts off each bed. These he piled over
the sleeping man till the perspiration
rolled of him in q stream. When the
young millionaire woke up he thought
be had fallen heir to woollen factory !;
and when Nick met him oh the street