The San Francisco call., 1899-05-06

and that on the date last mentioned
Edward Corrigan said in the presence
of Prince Poniatowski and others:
"Nickells is the crookedest man on
ths racetrack Get rid of him. Not be-
cause of what would happen now, but
what might happen if you keep him.
The complaint alleges that the words
quoted were slanderous and detama-
tory, and were the cause of his dismls-
sal from employment by the Prince and
damaged Nickells to the extent of $1,000.
A second alleged cause of complaint is
that four days later Corrigan said in
the presence of bystanders: 'Nickells
is the crookedest man on the race
track.
III. Cooper owner of Silverado, we'll
known race horse, will be an important
witness for the plaintiff in the suit. Mr..
Cooper is young gentleman of means,
who finds recreation in racing not from
mercenary motives, but for the pure
love of the sport; and because he dis
approved of Corrigan's gamollng
methods he and his horses were ruled
off the track a short time ago. Cooper
is connected with the story of Corri-
gan's animosity toward Nickells, which
dates from January IA of this year. On
that day Coopers horse Silverado ran
against Corrigan's horse Colonel Bart
lett. Just before the start NickellS SAID
to Corrigan, Il think l can win this
race" Silverado having been entered in
Nickells' name
Silverado beat the Corrigan horse,
and Corrigan, with the "gameness" of
a pawnbroker, "roared." Being job
Der himself. he thought everybody else
must be the same, and he accused
Cooper of having jobbed him. The story
+oId no a
by Mr.. Cooper.
After a very close finish my horse
won" said Mr.. Cooper. "Corrigan
raised quite a furor and declared that
if any other man but himself had been
second in the race he would have pro-
tested against awarding the purse to
Cooper. He claimed that he had been
the victim of foul play and went be-
fore the board of stewards and tried
to have us ruled off the track. l was
invited to appear before the board, but
| was not permitted to know the ma
ture of the charges against me. l had
heard that Corrigan had said that l
had paid two of the Jockeys in the race
to pull their horses in order that mine
might win.
II stated my case to the board, and
said that / had been absent in Oregon
for ten days prior to the race and had
returned to this city only on the morn
ing of the race. L had gentleman Oh
high standing to testify to this fact
and l insisted that he should be heard
in my behalf Corrigan said, Nobody
disputes your word, and the rest of the
board of stewards seemed to have
nothing to say. Corrigan, as usual,
was running the whole thing. Corrigan
refused to allow my witness to be
called Then he offered Jockey STAN
ford a race horse if he would go before
ho rH of tpGtifV
against us.
Shortly after that Nickells wanted
to enter another colt of mine and he
went to Secretary Green and asked
permission to enter the colt for race.
Green admitted that we had been eX-
onerated by the board of stewards, and
said that he would allow the colt to
run if | would agree to certain black
mailing demands of Corrigan, which
refused to do, and my colt was not al
lowed to run. The demand that Cor
rigan made upon me 1 decline to state