The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1914-11-13
THE SAME OLD STORY
The Foot Racer and the Foolish Fig.
ure in q Frame.Up

1t is the same old story, the trusting
would-be sport, willing to do any
body with the assistance of the slick
and oily foot racer, and then getting
done himself, and done brown. I'm
| fortunately for the name of the town
the scenery for the play was set in
Oroville, and here the comedy staged
with all it's unpleasant features.
There are some wiser, also very much
Iinfuriated, gamesters in Bridgeport, a
few richer sports in this balliwick,
with two discredited foot racers off
their ill gotten gains, and jollying over
the weakness of human nature and
the susceptibility Of men tempted by
the promise of riches easily attained.
Tom Smith, alias Morris, alias etc.,
gay old dog, who in mis- day has been
nimble on his pins, but has lost much
of his former activity by the accumul-
alton of years, was the chief actor in
the farce, and if the story that is told
is true he is a past master in the art
of double crossing. Smith is not an
unfamiliar figure here. His place of
permanent abode, if such place exists,
is unknown to the deponeth, but it is
not so far off but that he drifts into
town now and again. AS intimated
above. in his day he has been a sprint
er of some celebrity, and could slip
over 100 yards so expediously as to
throw sand in the eyes of most of the
alleged foot racers on the turf. But
his halcyon days have passed and he
really has little on an ice wagon in a
100 yard dash nowadays, unless the
wagon was rough locked. The other
N. M. Delfield. who fingers around
Bridgeport, where he is considered a
lulu as runner. While Delfield is
somewhat of sprinter he has the
great advantage of youth, and is con-
sidered swifter man than Smith.
Now, as the enchanting tale is told,
Smith slipped down to Bridgeport,
where he got in conference with his
old chum Delfield and with open heart
and great cheerfulness proceeded to
put up a job on the innocent and un-
suspecting Oroville plungers. That is
the dope, anyhow, as the legend is
handed out. Smith represented that
he could get backing even to the mag
nificient sum of $1,000, fortune these
hard times, in Oroville. His plan was
to relieve the Oroville plutocrats of
their surplus wealth. Delfield was to
get local backing to the same amount.
The race would be made. Delfield
would give his older competitor a han
dicap in the shape of a start of Is
feet. Then Smith would throw down
his Oroville hackers and the crowd
would return to Bridgeport and live
like princes on the plunder ever after.
Delfield held forth and put the prop
osition squarely up to some of the
principal citizens of Bridgeport, that
is select few, because it would be a
shame to divide up the fleece among
many Strange to say the principal
citizens approached were not shocked
b. the proposal. 1t would be a profit
| able joke on Oroville and so much
| safer landing a wad than resorting to
the jimmy or sandbag. They fell
To the voice of the siren, and the pros
pect of easy loot, and so far as known
their conscience did not worry them
| a little bit
| Last Friday N. M. Delfield, and two
hackers, rolled in from Bridgeport in
an auto, their countenances beaming
with honest joyfulness and a complac-
I ency born of the expectation Of pad
| ding their bank roll. They were re-
spectacle and honest looking individ-
uals, and there were no visible signs
that they were bent upon a cold blood
ed hold up. They soon got in touch
with fellows about town with sport.
ing proclivities, made themselves
agreeable, and in turn were made tc
feel at home. Foot racing was casual.
ly mentioned, one word led on tc
another, and after much preliminary
rag chewing, in which honesty of in