The Portland daily press., 1898-08-29
THE FAIR.
The Last Day, Saturday, Drew Good
Attendance.

Good Races-Much Grief Among Pool
Ticket Holders.
The great New England fair is over.
The last heat has been trotted, the last
prize cow shipped home, and the tents,
booths and fakirs' stands at Rlgby all
removed. So far as the STOCK exhlSlt
went, the fair closed Friday night, but
there were three races to run Oh ana a
postponed race to be disposed OF, SO the
whole show went over till Saturday.
The attendance at the grounds was
much larger than m ght have been ex-
pected, in view of tie fact that the pool
sellers bank had busted" and reign
of absolute quiet had settled over the
park. Fully 5000 people were there, two
thirds of them in the grand stand, and
the others dividing their time between
the races and watching the shipment of
the stock and the taking down of The
tents in the upper end of the park.
Within the Enclosure County Attorney
Libby's orders were being lived up to,
even to the stopping of the stub game. :"
which has never before been suppressed
But just outside the big fence three shell
games were in progress during the great
er part OF the afternoon, in full view OF
everybody who had occasion to pass from
the entrance gate to the railroad plat
form. One manipulation of the walnut
shells and elusive ball had the nerve to
set up table in tine shadow Of the little
station, and there he amused his gang
of "cappers" and entioed an occasional
victim into his web.
A few times when minions of the law
were headed in that direction. some lynx
eyed confederate of the shell men would
start cry of "Slow, "Slow," which,
in the language of the she'll men meant,
an officer Is coming; don't make the
situation too embarrassing for him; bet
ter pocket your shells for few minutes
till ne gets by"
The thing that was missed the most,
under the grand stand, Saturday after
moo. was the japber of the auctioneer. He
sat in the pool box, and occasionally on
gagged in earnest conversation with
friends who had approached him, but he
The bottom had completely dropped
out of the pool boxes. to the great sorrow
of dozens of men who stood about in
groups discussing the outlook, and won
dering If there wasn't some chance to
get back their good money that had been
invested in tickets on Wednesdays two
races.
The pool seller who on Friday predicted
that Cashier Gibson. who had failed to
appear on the scene, would be on hand
Saturday morning, had very little to say.
MI. Gibson had not been found. The
money entrusted to his handling Wed.
nesday, amounted to about S22, 600 Some
of it belongs to wealthy followers of the
races, who will never miss it. Some
represents the total worldly possessions
- few plungers who went in deep in
playing Wednesdays races. go
The question which brought out the
warmest debate in the pool room was
whether there is any such thing as col
lecting that 900 of somebody else, in
prolonged Indefinitely.
GA fellow offered TO pay me rs cents
on the dollar for my TICKETS" said man
who is entitled to about $500 Of the
$4,000 "but told him I wouldn't sell
cent less than par. Somebody was
behind this thing and will have to be
responsible for the payment of those tick
cts, or Ill make things hum before this
racing season is over
Investing in predictions on the heats
was the only pastime that the pool room
. offered 10 visitors. The fellow who ran
that did fairly good afternoons bust
ness.
given Saturday evening, the attendance
being very satisfactory.
FOURTEEN HEATS.
Three Full Races and the Finish of a
Postpone Event Run OFF,
The races we're interesting, but not as
much so as on some of the other days
of the fair, for the reason that in all
but one of the events the winners had
400 easy thing. In all IA heats were
Gun of during the afternoon. the sport
beginning at II O'Clock, and the last heat
being trotted after sun set.
Young Clon. who finished in the lead
of the 2.16 PAGERS Friday, made easy
work of winning the next two heats.
The 40 pace, which gave promise of
something extraordinary, turned out to
be an exceedingly tame affair. Charlie
B., a gelding from Hamilton, Ont, found
no difficulty in beating out the field in
three straight heats, though he was
forced to do his level best in each heat
and on the second trip was forced home
by Nellie Bruce in 2.O7 3d. He turned
the first quarter in 81 1.2 seconds, the
half in 1903 Ia, and past the three
fourths mile post in 1.3h. This was the
fastest mile made during the week. B.
B., whose winning of tie seven-heat
race in the early part of the week made
him a favorite with Rigby patrons,
was able only to save his entrance in this
race. His brushes; with Nellie Bruce in
he homestretch w ere features of the