New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-12-10
SHOT AT THE CYCLE RACES.
PROBABLY FATAL AFFAIR IN MADISON
SQUARE GARDEN.
CROWD WANTS TO LYNCH THE SHOOTER
BUT is BEATEN OFF BY POLICE
RESULT OF A BET.

RESULT OF A BET
An hour after the big bicycle race ended In
Madison Square Garden last night. and in the
excitement attending fifteen mile motor paced
race Frederick S. Slater. of No 151 Man-st.
Newark. was shot by Walter Rosser. nineteen
years DID, a medical student living at No 100
Lexington-ave The shooting occurred In one
OF the lower boxes. 1t the result OF quar-
rel between the two men over a bet they had
made on the result Of the six day race.
Slater was taken to Bellevue Hospital and Will
probably die. NJ
There were eleven thousand twelve thou
sand persons present, and some OF these. In a
frenzy, rushed at ROsser and wanted to lynch
him. Two hundred policemen rushed through
the mob charging right and left and striking
about them with their clubs until they sur
rounded Rosser Then they fastened with him
TO the overcOat office, where they hid him, sur
rounding and guarding the place.
ROsser was intoxicated at the time, II is said.
He was walking about in the Garden telling peo-
pie he would make bets the next race. The
six day race had ended, and the sprint races
were going on 1t was about II o'clock while
Slater and party of friends were in a box not
far removed from the finish on the twenty
seventh-st. side Of the amphitheatre, when Ros-
ser walked up to the box and said he was ready
TO bet to that Eaton would win the next race.
Eaton was not in the next race and Slater said
he would take dollars worth OF the bet He
put up a dollar, and ROsser also put up dollar.
Slater would have But just as the finish or
the race was exciting the big throng. some one
near Slater shouted to him:
He's got q gun. Look OUT"
The men had quarrelled over the bet and
clinched Then Rosser, who had drawn revo-
ver aimed it at Slater, who was In the box. The
man It is alleged fired point blank at Slater
The bullet struck him in the left breast just
the heart.
FELL INTO A WOMAN'S ARMS.
The crowd shouting so loudly over the
race that comparatively few persons heard the
shot Perhaps six or seven hundred persons In
the Immediate neighborhood of the shooting
heard it. and they saw Slater fall backward into
the arms Of a stylishly dressed young woman
who sat directly behind him. His head fell in
her lap. and she held him for a few minutes
But the excitement and the sight OF the blood,
together with the cries of an angry mob already
rushing at Rosser to lynch him. unnerVed her
completely, and she had to let CO. She was as
sisted out by friends though she almost tainted
The policemen In the Garden saw the determi-
nation of the crowd and they rushed up 70
Rosser. Several persons tried to take hold Oh
him but two policemen were too quick FOR them
and they held him away, with the ald OF otner
policemen who pushed their way through the
crowd toward the entrance.
By this time everybody in the Garden knew
that a man had been shot. The cheering that
had interfered with the hearing OF the shot had
subsidized and everybodys attention was directed
to the great jam near the scene Of the shooting
The policemen in a great phalanx crowded
around the medical student and forced him ana
themselves through the mob. The crowd tried
TO break through several times but the easy
way the police kept them off made the attempts
futile
Several men carried Slater to the coatroom.
He was nearly unconscious. but he motioned
for paper and pencil which was handed to him.
He then was braced up and Rosser was shown
to him. 1t is alleged that Rosser, after looking
at him. said:
I'm medical man, and I guess you're a
dead one"
Slater looked at him and then wrote:
This man shot me-"
SIGNED THE IDENTIFICATION.
He signed his name with the name OF the
street and the number. well the State. but
not the CITY, He was then taken out into the