The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-11-15


onel Sned. in the coy clubhouse. You
missed a great contest OF wits and skill.
And we won. Thanks TO Dobbsy, we
won J. m SO hoarse from yelling over
it that ] can hardly chortie in my joy
But you must tell me- said the cole
mel. motioning to the waiter. Did you
circumvent the Hickey Benders in Their
designs on those pin boys?"
The Hickey Benders. SAID BlOWltt,
placing his foot on a convenient chair ana
lighting cigarette, The Hickey Bend
eds clrcumVented themselves. The very
next day after 4 told you Of the way we
were raising each other ia keeping those
pin boys bought Hans Autahadit, their
crack hard-luck bowler, saw the two
crooked youths and gave them each "a $lo-
bill and a box Of fine cigars. With that
ard the other swag they'd amsssed-bi-
cycles, sweaters, boxing gloves, football
suits and all that-they skipped out that
night. They concluded setting up pins
wasn't nice enough for EN-, and started
TO follow up the races. That's where they
drop out of the story OF the great match
'So2' said the colonel. interestedly.
Yes, and that put it up to the PrOba-
ton park people TO provide two more
! boys" continued Bob. They'd heard OF
the cOrruptness Of the other two, so they
raided a Sunday school TO get a pair that
were straight. They got 'em-a pair OF
oK-eyed, innOcent-lOOking chaps, who
didn't know enough to set up pins
straight, let alone stacking them for
That event put it up to the Hickey
Benders to invent some other way 20
win DObbsy, whose clever scheme or
having the village blacksmith get in the
cellar and thUmp the alley under the pins
with his measured beat and slow, won
the games at our alleys for US, heard tneF
were up to some deviltry, and he deter
mined to even things a bit.
Their scheme said Dobbs to me, the
night before the great match, is undoubt-
edly TO make the pins they bowl at go
a.. frH
tie game through thatu make en- go
down awful hard
But you can't put spikes in 'em, as
they did said 1. Even green pinboys
would tumble to that
He waved his hands in airy disdain.
Come with me tonight said he. III
show you a trick with a hole in it No
spikes, no nails, no glue, no nothin'. Just
one Of the triumphs of science.
$50 that night about u o'clock we went
over to the Practitioners clubhouse
through the back streets, and found it
shut up save for a little game Of draw
upstairs. We knew they'd never hear
anything. so we pushed a knife UP be
tween the sash in one Of the back win
dOWs. slipped the catch and soon were iu
by those arbiters Of bowling destiny, the
pins.
"A brand new set had been provided for
the next night and to these DoDbS turned
his attention. With an awl he made a
little hole in the bottom of each pin and
drove in piece Of steel knittin' needle.
tom, and no one would ever know II was
there, without he looked mighty close.
There's no cellar under the Probation
park alleys, and DObbs' next move was
TO go outside, crawl under the building,
which is set on brick piers q couple of
feet high and fasteu 10 the under side
OF the alleys, right where the pins rest
a great big horseshoe magnet. I Won
dered what he had in the bundle ne
brought I found out then.
Then he came up, took his awl and
pierced the thin strips in the center of
each spot where each pin sets. Where
the balls roll the alley bed is thick, but
there it, thin, and after an hours quick
work. helped hin-we had the twenty
little holes all in. No one could see 'ern.
without he got down on his knees and
looked. Then he set a pin on spot and
like taking a cork out of a bottle-there
was a resistance that showed me that
you'd have to hit every pin with a, ball
to knock il down.
'ThatH be about right eh?' said be,
and even in the dark 7 could see a radi-
ant smile on his face. 'ThatL about
bring home the money. won't it|
But said J. this makes it just as
hard for both of us. Hadn't you thought
of that? Where is our advantage
% Hush" said he No childish ques-
lions. That's another story. Go home
and go to bed
when the great night came the alleys
were damned. The Ricky Blenders must
have hit upon some great scheme to make
sure TO win, We thought, for they came
out with their money Ike It was waste
paper. They put up lives and tens and
twenties as though il was "A get-rich-
quick game.
81 have an abiding faith in Dobbsy.
gained from long experience, but con-
fess their confidence kind O. Jared me.
/ hadn't said a word about Dobbsy's
game to our other fellows and they
smelled a rat when they saw how eager
the Blenders were to get their money !
down, and held alCOf 1t was only when
they got odds Of to 3, and so on. that
the Rickeys were soon offering, that they
put up any amount OF money.
"Dobbs came to me just before the
game and gave me the wink
90 It's all right said he. I've got their
game spotted and they don't know I'm
alive. III be under the pins running that
magnet so don't start fire up mere
What is it| said l. ANY more bel
lows arrangements
You know ] told YOU how they pushed
the nozzle of a big bellows through the
side of our alley and blew the pins down
for strikes in our last game
Bellows nothin'.' said DObbs. They've /
got ten boys armed with pea shooters on
to cover. and just as a Hickey man rolls
they re to shoot It's a good game, only
for my magnetiZed pins. The peas viii
pass EN- by like the idle wind. Bet all
prevailing odds and he passed over his
whole roll.
through practicing. and the Rickeys
smelled a rat then. too. They went down
and looked the pins over. and Stump
Splittsby tried to do business with one of
the new pin boys. He winked at him and
showed him q tWO-spOt IN his hand The
boy had to be shown. but when Stump
and Sim Stryzer had put him next he
drew himself up and said:
" Take back your gold. I shall never
pOllute the hands of the lender Of the ALiz-
pah Bible class. I spUrn your vile offer.
stump began frothinE at the mouth.
They thought he'd have a fit and it took
four drinks to put him right. Sim Stry-
ker was IN such a daZe he put UP for the
drinks. another thing before unknown.
Hank Hedpin called SplitJsby down for
approaching the pin boy, and finally Dea-
con Brown of the Probation Park clubs
board of directors agreed TO act as UNI
pire at the pins and see that all was
straight.
''The very first ball Sim Strylzer threw
down showed the respective merits Of
DObbs' game and the Rickeys'. His ball I
hit the head pin and plowed right
through, leaving three pins up on each I
side A perfect rain of peas hit the pins
we couldn't see. of course. from where
we were, and the green pin boys thought
1t was part ot the game. But big green Z
pea, hard as a bullet glanced off the
head pin and hit Deacon Brown on the
end Of the nose When he recovered he /
refused to act any more as umpire, and /
the Rickays rejOiced. for they thought
their game was surely safe from detec- !
ton.
s'But they were puzzled that they didn't I
get more pins When we changed alleys /
the same things haDDened-the balls they
carefully delivered plowed right through. !
only taking three or four pins-those di-
rectly IT. contact with the ball-and 7
knew Dobbsy's magnet was working The /
peas flew down in a shower at each shot. |
and the pin BOYS got plugged several I
times with the glancing pellets. Tt was I
no Joke and they slapped themselves "a I
though hornets were at en-
''Of course we were just rolling our
regular eame-a strike now and then. and I