The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-22
RAINEYS CHEAP TRIP.
..BUsTED" THURMAN PLAYS SHARP
TRICK ON THE RAILWAYS.


mia He sIIps Out and Lets the Com
pany Keep the Horse.
From the Chicago Inter-ocean.
James Rainey took the witness stand in
coutt in Phoenix, Ariz the other day,
and speedily earned abe tile Of "stutter-
ing jim" by stammering and suffering
whenever a question was asked that he
did not care to answer He had never
been know to stutter before. He, excused
his defective speech TO the court by say
ing that 1t was due to excitement. and
that nervous affection was the cause.
Jim was shrewd. In four years he had
married the only daughter of a wealthy
rancher, had acquired handsome ranch
| and interests in mining properties. had or.
ganized canal company, had elected his
father-in-law president and himself treas
urer of the company, and had BULL TWEEN
| ty-three miles of the canal. Several New
Workers held the canal bonds. the stock
holders had the canal, and Suffering
Jim" the money. He made many finan-
cial turns, all of which Indicated sharp
ness One of his qgeerest pranks, though,
was a plan to get to California from Ken
lucky without paying car fare. 1t hap
pened IN the days when Jim was short of
funds
He was in Lexington, KY, at the time,
and had been trying to exc out a living
by following the races. But. as usual Just
as luck seemed to be going his way, some
thing would happen in the nick of time
| to make him a loser. He put all his money
on PAGER. The horse was winning cas-
| lily, and was only hundred yards from
the wire, when flash of lightning scared
the beast so that he stood still Jim was
without nickel after that. He was sick,
| and physician had told him that he must
winter in warm climate or he would
die. SO IL was he decided to go to Cali
fornia>
Il sat down." said Suffering jim, IN re-
counting his woes, "and studied hard on
the problem. At last hit upon a scheme
| l went to friend that owned stunning
| fur-lned overcOat that reached nearly to
my heels In this rig and clean shave
| l went to the railroad office and told the
/ agent 1 wanted to ship a 81, 900 race horse
| through to California, c. o. d. And give
| me $1,000 insurance on him, too,' 1 said,
because he's a world-beater.' 1t was
| pressing 'ern hard, but the agent looked
/ at my stunning fur-lined overcoat, Fized
/ d
| You see. at that time the rules of the
| company directed that any race horse sent
/ over the road should be in charge of a
| keeper. 1 was figuring on going as the
horses keeper. See the point?
MY next trick was the capture of a
4 horse. When l returned the overcoat and
/ told my friend of my play and luck he
! was so tickled over the whole thing that
| he loaned me $10% sold some horse trap
1 .s,, trI~o -
| that sum I had to outfit for the trip, get
| some sort of record breaking horse and
j, rig him out to make 5000 showing Of
4 himself all the way to California. You
bet it, was a job
Il hunted all the cheap joints for one
to suit me, and found him. He had a
head and neck on him like racer, but
| don't go any further, for he was the
/ dizziest old cayuse you ever looked at.
light on him. 1 paid $3.50 for him, and
that was dear; but 1 must have him.
Il went at him with a pair of clippers
| and soon had a thoroughbred--a skeleton
of one, anyhow.
THE boys got wind of what was going
| on and all came around. They got so in
| terested in the scheme that they all chip
ped in 10 buy feed. The whole gang es-
corted me to the depot that night. l need
ed them TO boost the old boHeyard along.
| Just before we got to the depot we took
him down an alley and 'doctored' him to
make him good and frisky.
| Well that we did. for the
freight agent was there himself to
look after me. He never recognized me in
my old clothes, dirty face and hands, and
| tumbled hair. talked my best brogue
and the disguise was complete. The boys
had sent down bale of hay. and a bag
of oats. They handed up a package of
grub and bottle of whisky for me- The
old plug danced around like a 2-year-old
I'VE got him into the car, and the bows
kept me company until the train started
l was glad when we pulled out of the de-
pot, but my troubles were Just beginning
| wasn't bit sleepy. and spent the next
hour or two mentally calculating where
was at and where l would get off After
paying few bills and buying some horse
medicine and little traps for myself. l mad
just 81 in cash, l had about three days
feed for the horse, and about two days
grub for myself. and a twelve or fourteen
days journey ahead of me. Could / pull
through on 30 cents day. That's all that
bothered me then.
1T was frightfully cold that night. and
the old horse threatened to fall down al
every jolt of the car. This worried me
for / didn't believe that the old fellow
could ever get up again. The agent as.
sured me that the car would go right
I through but you can never tell what a
railroad will do. 1 consoled myself with
the thought that we would get part way
to California anyhow, and. rolling myself
in my blankets, / finally went to sleep.
IT got out of grub long before we got
to Chicago, but l could always get enough
for myself. What bothered me was to gel
cheap food for my racer.
Il didn't get chance to buy horse feed
until the very last spear Of hay was gone.
) We were about 200 miles out of Chicago. II
was just after sunset, when we pulled up
about a mile outside OF some little depot
Right opposite my car door was a hay
stack. l had that door open quick and
away ! went over the barb wire fence ]
made the hay fly out of the side of that
stack, tell you. / pulled out good arm
full and started back to the car got that
one In all right and as / didn't know when
the engine would again be accommodating
I started for a second one.I was just gath
ering ii up when 1 heard the train start
ing. In my haste to get over the fence !
fell. The barbs ripped a slit in my trou-
sers a foot long | skinned my elbow on a
rock-but the hay--I never lost a spear
| throw tho HAY into the car and spra m hi "a