Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-12
NOON CROWD IS
THE BUSIEST YET
0LD-TIMER THINKS 1T LIKE
FIESTA WEEK
Raffles Again Repeats Injunction to
Challenge Every smooth-Faeed
Man Met on the
Street
scont,nued from page one.)

Continued from Page one)
this game on a legitimate basis / want
to state right here that 1t is in no wise
necessary that you wear that make of
shoes. or any other shoes for that mat
ter. when you capture me. In another
advertisement uttered by the local
manager of that shoe company l am
challenged to enter his store and buy a
pair of his shoes.
/ am not buying that make of shoes,
as they are not my style of footwear,
as the last pair l purchased in New
York were not worth thirty cents.
1 am calling attention to this adver-
fisement as it is grossly misleading and
should not be paid attention to seri-
ously by those on my trail.
Crowd Is Eager
That the sleuths on my trail have
taken advantage of my tip to hold up
every smooth-faced man in sight was
apparent during the noon hour when
the gathering, numbering about 5000
persons, started challenging right and
left in a frantic effort to run me to
cover.
However, 1 was prepared to resist
capture to the limit of my ability, as
/ wanted to hold off for the night
meeting at Chutes park, and by a
strict attention to my business had but
little difficulty in maintaining my in
cognito during the 55 minutes l was
in that crowd.
All the regulars were there, all busy
holding up smooth-faced men. and
was kept on the hop trying to dodge
such clever sleuths as conductor 1139.
who was busy showing everybody he
met a copy of The Herald containing
my reference to his persistent efforts
to capture me; letter carrier 116, whom
1 have noticed in the crowds before;
the chap with the light sombrero, dark
blue suit and pink tie, who has been
q steady purSuer since last Monday;
the woman in the red dress and the
old man with the gray whiskers, who
was certainly working overtime.
That old chap will get run over some
of these fine days If he don't keep out
of the middle of the street. He had
two or three narrow squeaks of it yes
terday, but even at that he is mighty
lively on his feet, so I suppose there
is no use in my worrying particularly
about him.
At Fifth Street Store
The main body of the crowd clus-
tered for some reason or other about
the entrances to the Fifth Street store,
where there were on an average of
ten holdups a minute. Business in the
entire neighborhood was practically
suspended while the frantic mob chased
man after man in an effort to establish
his identity-and there was l waiting
at the bank, waiting at the bank-and
just watching the merry villagers do
their unaccustomed frolics.
At half past II the crowd became sc
great that street cars were compelled
to come to a halt while such thing
as getting teams and wagons through
the crowd was simply an fmposSibility
Two women in a buggy had the time
of their lives trying to urge a dark
brown horse to edge his way through
the crowd. That horse wasn't used to
Raffles crowds and he didn't seem to
like the place, anyhow, so he deliber-
ately tried to climb up the side of q
store front, much to the amaZement of
one of the women who held the reins.
A couple of grenadiers from the home
guards finally came to the assistance OF
the women and the last 1 saw of the
outfit the horse was being led through
the crowd by the two huskies.
Police Not in Sight
Strange, but true, there were no po-
licemen in sight until after the time
limit of my appearance. 1 hung around
the corner for some time after the ma
jority of the crowd had disappeared uc
see If there was any possibility OF
grabbing off copper before 1 left the
locality, and 1 was finally overjoyed
to discover officers So and III emerge
from somewhere in the neighborhood
and take up their positions in front OF
the Fifth Street store at exactly fifteen
minutes past 1 O'clock
You are permitting me to give Won 2
fairly good run for this money, for al