The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-03


| from 20 to 1 to 100 in the betting to fin
| ish last, and we all thought it was like
| getting money in a letter to be on the
| dopey looking mule at such a good
price as 2 to l. Well, that weary-look-
| ing animal got away in front at the
| fall of the flag, and he simply tiptoed
his field all the way, finishing 20 lengths
ahead, pulled up. The glossy coated,
nervous mule that was the outsider in
the betting at $50 to l, without a bet
down on him, couldn't raise a lope. and
he was beaten a furlong and pulled
down the purse
THAT reminds me of a cat-losing we
had out in Rock Island. Ill, in 49, said
| another man in the party. Never
heard of cat-losing? Why. they've
| been having them all over the middle
West ever since that one was pulled
off in Rock Island. The way it hap
pened was this: There was an old cit
zen out in Rock Island named Bill
Chetwood, who Dragged all during the
summer of 80 that he had a cat that
| couldn't be lost. The cat was ornery
and a night marauder of the despised
| male gender, and Bill had tried all ways
| to lose that cat, he said. He had tied
| four bricks to the cats neck on several
different occasions. and then beaved the
| feline into the Mississippi, which runs
pretty swift at Rock Island, but every
| this he had found the cat sitting on
| the front porch licking off the wet and
| summing himself. Bill was determined
| to get rid of the cat, though, and ne
| finally tied the cat up in jute bag and
| handed the cat to a friend of his,
mail clerk on the Rock Island railroad,
! asking the mail clerk to just ditch the
cat. bag and all. at any old point not
nearer than 100 miles from Rock Island.
| The mail clerk did this to oblige Bill,
| heaving the cat out in the dark some
| where near a swamp, about 125 miles
| from Rock Island. Bill announced
| down at the postoffice three days later
that his cat was back looking a bit
| hungry, and with less of it's left ear
| than it had had before, but still in the
ring and not a whit shy in appetite.
Bill by this time regarded his cat as a
wonder, and he made good deal of a
nuisance of himself telling everybody
in Rock Island that in his opinion.
which he was willing to back with mon
ey, there wasn't a cat in the state OF
Illinois, or. for the matter Of that. ir
the whole country that had such dead
| bead on home as his tom had. Bills
fellow citizens insisted that there was
nothing remarkable about the cats
performances: that it was only natural
for cat to decline to be lost under any
circumstances, and that Rock Island
was full of cats that could repeat any
or all of the performances of Bills cat.
Somebody finally suggested that the
thing be tried. This is just what Bill
wanted, and so a committee on ar
engagements went ahead to organize the
cat-losing. AT first it was desired by
all hands, and especially by Bill, that
all of the cats to be entered in the COM
petition should be lost off railroad
| train as Bits cat had been when it last
tt,,., ,pI hut ,f ha .aiI
mail clerk couldn't take all the cats
along with him in the mail car, and
railway facilities could not be got for
90 or 80 bagged cats. Then somebody
suggested that the cats all be doubled
bricked and dropped into the Missis
sippi from a skiff about 10 miles above
Rock Island but the women folks,
hearing of this proposition, vetoed it as
cruel So it was finally determined that
all of the cats entered in the event
should be driven out in the woods in a
farm wagon and then, at a point about
five miles from town. chucked out of
the wagon, free-footed, and left to hus-
tie for themselves. There were 80 en-
tries each man who entered his cat
paying SIS for the privilege. The cat
that reached its home first was to pull
down the $3.50 for its owner.
"a good many of the Rock Island citi-
zens who had cats entered in that event
rehearsed their felines several times be-
fore the regular cat-losing was to come
off, and all of the cats showed extra
ordinary aptitude in hustling back TO
their own doorSteps from distant points.
Bill didn't rehearse his cat at ALL
Amy cat said Bill, that can scram-
BILE out of jute bag heaved into a
swamp more'n 100 miles from its own
fireside don't need no rehearsing. That
cats got it in him, and he'll be the first
cat back for money.
1.-The betting was lively on the event
for fully week before it came off, and
Joe Horribly, who ran the saloon, opened
a book on it. AT first he laid as good
as 1 to on Bill Chetwood's being the
first cat home. but that price was 50
eaten up from the jump that he rubbed
his slate to / to 8 and l to on Bits
cat, and finally he barred Bills tom in
the betting altogether saying that he
already stood to lose more than $1,000
If Bills cat got home first. There was
plenty of speculation on the event with
Bits cat out in the betting. Bill gave
me 3 to ! for $50 that 1 put up on the
field against his cat, SO confident was
he that he was going to win.
well, on the day the cats were driven
out into the woods competent and hon
est judges were placed at each of the 80
homes of the 80 cats, with instructions
to time the exact moment of the APP
pearance of the respective felnes they
were looking for. A good deal of in
terest was aroused throughout the town
over the event, and one of the local
preachers had mentioned the matter in
his sermon on the previous Sunday,
calling it sinful gambling. The cats
We're turned loose from the farm wagon
at exactly o'clock on a Saturday aft
ernoon, and by that time most of us
who had bets down on the outcome We're
sitting on the court house steps, wait
ing for the first judge to turn up with
the announcement that the cat he had
been appointed to time upon its arrival
was back. AT exactly 2:40 young fell
low named Charley Finn came running
up to the court house on a lope, with
his cat under his arm. The cat had it's
numbered tag around its neck. and we
all duly identified it as one of the start
erS So the $50 was Firms, and I had
won $3.50 from Bill Chetwood. Following
that, for space of half an hour, the
/ A..