Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-07-07
HOW THE GUY RAN.
The Whole Army Post Went Broke on
the Race.
A FORT MYER TROOPERS TALE.
He Tells About n Race Mt santa Fe When
Everybody But Three Fellows on tho
Inside Got Left.
washington Post.)

81 see somebody in the Post has been
writing up that story OF the Denver walk
ing. match" said Fort Myer trooper on
the train for Alexander Island the other
afternoon. THAT was great time for
Denver l was out there when IL hap
pened, and It reminds me OF something OF
the same sort that happened down In
Santa Fe not very long ago. II was In
the summer OF 1890, when I was down
there on a furlough from Wingate and
mixing UP with some fellows l knew In
the infantry. ] guess l ought to remem-
Der 81. too. for every man In the post
got cleaned out, from the colonel down.
and you couldn't get any tick in any Of
the stores there the rest Of the time j
stayed IN town.
1.-The Vests an awful mean place Tor
doing men on brace games and every
man that gets done starts out TO do
somebody else. so they never get through
with Il. Just about that time one OF the
storekeepers down on San Francisco
street corkrd roulette wheel in Stin-
sons gambling house-thats the biggest
the bank before they dropped on him and
chased him out Of town. Well. of course
old man Stinson was SIRE and directly he
got chance TO get back.
WAS A REGULAR MERCURY.
zone day there was a poor. measly-
looking tramp blew into town and loafed
around. begging, a living and saying he
had gone broke running a sheep ranch up
the Chalma. Well, they stood il a little
while and then. seeing he was just
natural, good-fer-nothing cuss, they vaS-
ged him and put him in the calaboose out
on the edge Of town. He hadn't been
there long before he got 10 fooling win
some Of the other fellers running races
in the exercise yard. and Jim Mchenny'
the warden, seed 10 once he was flyer.
He beat anything in the jail, and they had
some ight-footed fellers there. too; and
Mac Just saw his chance to make
KILN.
He came in town and told Sinson
about the jay runner. and the two or
them went out and held the watch on
him on the quiet, and then when ms Tune
was up. and the Guy We all called hlH'
came back to town, Stinson backed MN
10 race anything on two legs in Santa re
county.
1--WE had a Teller at the post that could
outrun horse. His name was Whaien'
but they called him Splinter fer short
and of course the boys all put up TO
do the Guy. And then hlac went around
very quiet and confidential and told Staub
and Gusdorf and some of the big store
keepers that the jay couldn't run a little
bit: that he had three men out at the jail
that could do him. and Splinter had run
I'll Of them off their feet
THAT settled IL. Everybody in that
countrvll bet their boots and blankets
on any sort of a race, and the soldiers
and the storekeepcrs got together Tor once
and backed Splinter for everything in
sight: and the only man that hung out OF
the combination was Billy Burton, that
kept the wine-parlor UP on the plaza
Stinson and Mac had given him the tip
and ne was throwing in stuff on the quiet |
to back the yahOo.
"Of course the officers didn't want TO |
seem 10 take much interest IN what We
privatcs was in. but they went around |
sort or unconccrne1 and plankod all they |
could get on the home man, just fer |
"cpaulctts de corpse they said. And the |
X O.. that was old Colonel Douglas, sort |
er turned MP his nose at such fuss over
a foot race, and then went around and |
pnt down twenty-five cold on the home |
man; said he was doin' it fer a friend
EVERY CENT WAS Up.
"Wen. little place like Santa Pc just |
goes plumb crazy over anything Of ttat
sort, The race was to come OFF on Satur-
day afternoon. and by Friday there wasn't |
n cent in the post. not in ID Company, |
anyway, aud the rest Of 'em wasn't much !
better Splinter could o a hundred yards |
I'm 10 at and there wasn't man in the |
post but what would er gone to clink |
fer a month on the home mans chances.
Friday come. and they marked the |
coiirs. of on the south side Of the bar |
racks, between that and the Federal build |
ing. and everybody that could get along
side the line was there and what couldn't
see on the ground climbed mp on the |
barracks wall, and a lot more of them |
was perched mp on the top of the hay
bales in the Carol. OF course, the colonel
wasn't coming around to look at any
such dongs. but he said he thought he'd |
e. up and see that the men were dom
all right with the helosraph practice on
Fort Marcey-and the boys say he didn't
do a thing but sit there and take In the
race with his field glasses
1T was a race-abOut half way. Old
Flaps the color sergeant. got out with
a siN-shootcr to start 'em. and they both
jumped at the smoke. Lord! how little
Splinter did run. He just hit on the high
places. and everybody was 50 busy watch
ing him, / swear ! don't believe they just
saw the Guy till it was over. 1t don't
take long to go a hundred yards, and ]
don't know how he did II. but that long
legged Ishmalitc Just seemed To lope along
"a If he wasn't hurrying and spite er all
the running splinter did. blame me IL the
yahoo didn't beat him out by yards.
Mad? Well. IL was just the maddest.
wOTst-sold crowd you ever saw-all OF
'em. but Stinson and Billy Burton, and
Mac. And they went off up to Denver
the next day and come back poorer than
they went, having run against some OF
.,oapy Smiths crowd there and tried TO
sit in on a poker game. And the Guy?
We never found out about him fer SIX
months afterward. and then We heard lie
was circIs man out of a job, one of the
fellers that used to go against the run
ming horse. and he just naturally staked
himself playing us fer suckers.