Omaha daily bee., 1905-08-14
FARMER FOOLED CITY CHAPS
They Let Him in on = Horse Ringing
Game ana TIE worked the
Gross on Them

Recently two trotters owned In Phnsdel-
phia, trotter and PAGER owned in New
York and a PAGER owned In the neighbor-
hood Of Lexington, Kv.-all horses that
have earned fast marks" on the tracks Of
the large circuits. but that are no longer
useful as money makers there.have mys.
teriously disappeared. and similar reports
come from other sections Of the country
concerning other horses
II is believed that these horses have been
spirited away for the purpose Of perpe.
trating fraud and that sooner or later they
will be uncovered as ringers"
Speaking OF ringers" an incident oc-
CURED about twenty years ago in a middle
west state which put lasting damper on
the practice In that section and which was
very funny. A brace Of men who did not
wear medals for honesty worked three rich
sporty young chaps. each of whom was
the owner Of a fairly speedy half-mile
running horse, into a match. The race
was made for $3.50 corner, and was set
far enough ahead to allow good deal ~
excitement to he worked up over g. and
while the talk that usually precedes such
an event in a small place was going on a
farmer, who lived in an adjoining county.
who also owned n runner, was approach
He listened eravely 10 all they had to say
and was let In on the killing. This man. n
is perhaps unnecessary TO say. was con-
sidered reliable" by the promoters Of the
job. II was known to them and a few
others that he had a horse that could out
foot the three original entries.
Finally the day for the race came and the
town so 70 speak. was out to see the
horses run. There was a great hubbub
Everybody had money and everybody
wanted to bet. Men who rarely before had
dollar had wads Of money that day. fur
nished, II was naturally supposed. by the
three wealthy young bloods to bet on their
respective horses. And the sharks and
their friends had emissaries out greedily
swapping It up. They were sure they had
I'm the country horse what we would now
call pipe" for It was reported to them
from time to time that he was in prime
condition.
To make a long story short, the horse
owned by the young man who the crooks
thought would be the richest picking for
them won all the way, and the reliable
farmers nag finished last 1t afterward
came to light that the countryman had
played both ways from the middle. He
knew the town gang would bet to a man
on his horse and he substituted another
horse that was almost the image of the
real race horse to compete with the horses
OF the sporty youths. This beast could
hardly run fast enough TO keep himself
warm, and the farmer, through agents, COW
cred hundreds of dollars laid down by the
sharks that he would win.
This was a case of the ringer" getting
wrung. There was loud and angry talk
about shooting and cutting over It, but no
such calamity resulted. While II was a
villainous affair all through save the part
the originally intended victims took, It
proved good for decent horsemen of those
parts, for II there has been a ringing
scheme pulled of out there since I have
not heard OF 1t. Previous to that time
such deals were not infrequent.-New York
Telegram.