The Grit-advocate., 1903-12-18
Oecondo
David Harum
Wild Bill eandy Always ''swIndied
EN- Square.

>-<->->->->-~>"
Wild Bill" Bandy. the smoothest horse
trader that ever forced a bit between
broncos teeth. aend who has been one of
acters of the West. is dying in Salt Lake
City. Eighty years old, and haViHH turn
ed sd,s over several fortsnss tune in w,s R is
waiting for death. penniless.
David Harum at no time me-, in n his career l,!
one of the old horse sharp's friends to-
day. and his opinion is shared by West
erners from Comstock walk to Phoebe
wild Bill certainly was eenius in his
line. II alters ,swindled EN- square" he
in the fact that he he has swindIed 2$1l
men men in horse trades and never saw the
At one time wild Bill had accumulated
100000. and during that stage of his car
eer he became, like David Harum kind
Of country banker and broker. and was
wild BIZ told of his greatest horse
swindle one day, while discussing in
in horse swindIes during his life and
'blowed every mothers cent of it, too;
Them was purity good days. They
wasn't no laws agin man tradin' off
hoss in them days, and tell you business
was r1sht 1ITsy at batK tImeT along about n
continued Bill. q made a rattlin' good
hoss trade down where the Metropolitan
through Murray one afternoon that sum
mer and l met Bill Watson. Bill was the
superintendent over the smelter in them
Mays. and he says to me:
I've got couple of hosses over here
that you kin look at if you want to-
I'm goin to lead EN- out and shoot EN-
and may be you kin take the pair Off
my hands,
~ went over with Bill and looket. at
the critters. and if there wusn't two of
the blamedest good-lookin' hosscs that
eyer wore hair; ! knew right off that
they, WINS loaded but didn't say nothing
until .,I3l, Bili sn0ke up and says ,,o u,o,
Well says !, kind of careless like.
I can't give you nothing fer EN-. .nt
would send the boys over a keg ol beer
to take 'em off your hanus.'
It's go said Bill. and the bargain
wus ma, made ! sent over the kea of beer
bring the hosses to town.
well. it took, the kid just three days
to make the trip from Murray here. The
leadin' 'em along by easy stages he man
aged to get em in. Every day ! rode
down to how they wus comm along.
and finally the third day, he came in
with the critters and took EN- over back
of the Metropolitan Hotel. The next
day | planned an auction. dug up Joe
WIS slick loollin' feller. and had
tongue that could fool the best of 'em.
We'll. in a couole of days or so we held
the auction. and a purity '-ood crowd
Wus on hand. Joe wus the auctioneer.
and I wus there tobid up the hoss. We
brought out one of the critters and put
him up fer sale. He WIS fine lookn'
animal, with nary a bemish on him. One
of the owners of the smelter had fetched
the team out from the East fer buggy
animals. and they wus daisies till they
got loaded The smoke finally fixed EN-.
though, and nary one could trot block
without fallin' down
LAS soon as they put the hoss up. I
bid $50 fer him. Some feler with long
linen duster on examined the beast. feelin,
of his joints and lookin fer spavins and
ringbonejSo or joe F'UY E,Rs he steps back ana
at si@ With So and he @' makes it si s1da
Thore she stood fer quite a while. I das-
sent raise HIM agin.' fer | wus scared
n wus sa7 80 to the good. fer the beer cost
me $3.50, and I stll had the mate to go
"rinally I plucked up nerve enough to
raise him $50. He waited a minute and
"'TIi make it s15O
"My knees wus knockn' like a scared
kid. and turned to the feler and said:
We'll. pardner. you want that hoss
have him. I wanted him powerfully bad.
I have a dead ringer fer him. but $50
is most too much.
1.-The man give Joe the $50 and come
up to me and said
"'You say you've got a mate fer him."
~ have saws i; but he's not for
''Kin I look at him?' says he
Certainly says l. but he's not fer
He looked at him and right away de-
cided he must have him They wus so
much alike you couldn't tell EN- apart,
and w he =, asked me to saa; set price. oo,,,,,
get mate for him. might sell him.
though ! hate to mighty bad If you
thought minute and then said:
"'Will you take Il check?'
Not me I said. ! don't know you.
I'll have to have the money. He looked
at me purity hard and says
Don't you know who | am? m Mr..
X. and 1 own nigh half this town;
dont rdW may va be TINT baya says 70 o" 1nd
money knS~ or YOU yo" can't take ee the hoss s '
didn't doubt his word; but l was afraid
that if, he found out the hoss was loaded
he'd stop payment on the check before l
He finally says: Will You take my
check if l go to the bank with you and
Certainly, says I. We went to the
bank and he made out the check which
me fr: letting him have the hoss and
went back to get his team. went down
to the Colorado stables to watch the fun.
He tied the team back of an express
wagon and started up the street at i
good clip. The hosses went about half
nplock and both ,keeled over. Then he
UWus mad. He looked for me and couldn't
find me. and then wondered what he
could do with his steeds. Joe wus near by
and SympathlZed with MN. sayln he "us
powerful sorry and claimn'. of course.
that he didn't know the hoss wus loaded
The stranger said he didn't blame Joe
at ALL cause he wus only the auctioneer.
and didn't know anything about the ami
NAL.
"He stamped and fumed about for
while and then began wonderin' what he
could do with his stock. Finally he says
to joe
"'rhey cost me just $325, but you kin
have the pair fer $40 if you'll take em
away
"Of course this was just what we want
ed so Joe snapped EN- up and took EN-
down to the Colorado stables.
.'rhey hadn't been standin in the barn
ten minutes afore farmer who
his Way to Idaho saw EN-. He wus took
up with the brutes from the start. and
right away wanted to buy the pair. He
asked me what I'd take for the team, and
l told him $3.50. l told him | had just
bought the animals a few minutes be-
fore and they hadn't been out of the barn.
I saii didn't know II theN would ulll