The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-24

Thousands of Dollars Won From
Folks Who'd Scorn n Gold Brick.
From the New York Sun

From the New York Sun.
Fort Scott, Kan, Dec. Out here
where the gold brick mas almost out
lived its usefulness as an article of
commerce and the market for green
goods has dwindled almost to the van
ishIng point, slick gang of Missouri
ans have extracted, within a year,
more than 5000. 900 from the pockets of
wealthy citizens by means of the Ven
cradle moss backed footrace swindle.
They have worked it i'll every city
within a few hundred miles of this
place. and il has been easy money.
1t is the old trick of pretending to
let in prominent merchants or public
officials in high places on shady
transaction which will be sure thlng,
and few of those approached seem 10
have been able to withstand the temp
tation The victims are known to IN
clude one member of the Kansas Leg
islature. a bank president, Nebraska
sheriff, Texas sheriff, three lawyers,
several well-known merchants and
round dozen of stockmen, besides any
number of wealthy business men who
prefer to pocket losses of hundreds or
thousands of dollars rather than squeal
and reveal their identity
And in spite of repeated exposure
the swindlers have not only managed
to ESCAPE justice. so far, but have round
dupes for fresh races every week. Last
week they brought off four and their
profits from the four are put at $4,000.
But all things have an end. and after
escaping free on various pretexts from
the state courts the whole gang is now
under indictment by a federal grand
jury. The Kansas legislator is the
head and front of the prosecution.
The gang has ruined him and he
is out for vengeance. He is j. NJ.
Davis and a short time ago he was
a wealthy stockman. The drought
brought reverses upon him and at
the same time the swindlers got $4,000
out of him.
OF his 1000 acres he hasn't ever a
homestead left. so he has set out on
the swindlers' trail. He has commun-
icated with other victims and has a
list of twenty letters from the at
torneys of many more. These show
that the individual losses run up to $21,-
000-the Texas sheriff's-2and down to
$500, taken from Kackley, Kan, mer-
chant.
The trick didn't differ materially in
any of the cases. The gang calls it,
self the Webb City Athletic Associa-
ton.
It's members, as indicted, include A.
p. Stewart, cashier of a Webb City
bank: Bob Boatright, saloonkeeper
and treasurer of the association; Bud
Gillette and G.. o. Stansberry, sprint
ers, and f. E. Ellis, one of several men
who are charged with soliciting vic
Tins.
The sprinters are men of local rep
utations only. The swindlers selected
as their victim in each case a man
who because of his business or Off
cial standing in the community would
be unlikely to tell tales exposing his
connection with a deliberate attempt
to defraud.
TO him representative of the asso-
citation would conflde that the gang
was about to hold a fake race between
the two sprinters and wanted to bet
IS, 900 on it. Being officers of the asso-
citation they didn't dare bet the money
themselves, for fear the public would
suspect, so they were looking for a
stranger to bet the money for them.
AS his reward he would have from
81 900 to $4,000, the amount being reg
! ulated by the cupidity of the victim,