The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-04-30
REMARKABLE GRAFTON OF COLONEL GRULL
OF ROUNDUP DIM FAMOUS HORSE RACE CASE

Some Is years since, when thu
now booming little city of Roundup
was beginning to struggle for place
on Montana's map, the citizens -oi
the town were won't, on Sunday
afternoon, to gather at rough race
track near the townsite and while
away a couple of hours watching
horse races. One day horse was
brought in from Forsyth, the owner
of which issued a blanket challenge
to all horse owners in Roundup for
a half-mile contest the following
Sabbath. There was in Roundup at
the time a mare called Dixie, whose
owner accepted the challenge. The
race was run and Dixie won in
canter. BY the terms of the race
the owner of the winning horse was
to receive the losing horse as the
stakes of the contest.
Immediately after the race was
finished, the Forsyth man, whose
name could only be found now in
the archives of the court at Lewis
LOMus DIOlCSlOu IllC anu 0dAO5NN
a conspiracy. He employed local
character of Roundup, the famous
Colonel Crul1, who once sat in the
legislature of Montana, as his at
torney, in his suit to recover pos
session of his horse, which had been
seized by the winner.
On the statute books of Montana
at the time was a law prohibiting
horse races outside of enclosures.
Ignoring this Colonel Crull institute
ed legal proceedings, and the trial
took place at Lewistown, as Round
up was then within the boundaries
of Fergus county. During the trial
a charge was made that Colonel
Crull, himself, had been party to
the alleged conspiracy, and was re-
quired to defend himself before the
court on an information accusing him
of being present illegally at the race,
and therefore being an accessory to
a criminal act. In defending him
self, Colonel Crull delivered one OF
the most remarkable orations ever
heard in Montana court.
On the day of the celebrated race |
in Roundup number of prominent |
citizens of Fergus county were in the
town. 1t is probable that several OF
them were also witnesses of the race.
One of those who was in Roundup, !
and who might have been at the
race track, is Judge Roy E. Ayers, at
present Judge of the district court OF
Fergus county. The other day Judge
Ayers, while looking through some
old court records, came upon the
transcript of the horse-race case,
which contained Colonel CrulPs fam
Gus speech.
In commenting upon the Grafton OF
Colonel Crull Judge Ayers let slip
fact that never before has been made
public. 1t was that the speech,
which was delivered by Colonel Crull
with dramatic effect, was in reality
prepared for the Colonel by two men
who were then engaged in journals
tic careers, at least as side lines, and !
who today are prominent Lewistown
citizens. Their names are Hon.
Thomas Stout and John B. Ritch, the
latter founder of the town of Lam
dusky in the Little Rockies.
Following is the remarkable
speech of Colonel Crull:
COLONEL CRULL: May it please
this most Honorable Court: I have
a few brief words to say, not in my
defense, sir, not in palliation of any
offense l may have committed to ,
bring me to the humiliating position :
which now occupy-standing before
this Honorable Court as conspirat-
or and violator of our sacred laws
but 1 do sincerely desire to offer the
Court a short explanation as to why
I am in your honorable presence, a
suppliant for Your Honor's elemency.
1t was on balmy Sunday after s
noon in the month of October, may it
please the Court, that as l wended N
my way to attend a meeting of the Il
Epworth League in the beautiful, n
hustling, thriving metropolis of the o
Imperial valley of the Musselshell, a
I was so unfortunate as to overtake o.
a party of friends, who were also
going in the same direction to a o.
horse-race. n,
Your Honor, / remember now how 7.
the sun bathed our little city in a A
brilliant sheen; how the bracing p
winds from the west stirred my fast ri
aging pulses at the thought that /, m
too, might be a witness, and partic- ~
ipant, as it were, to that noblest and m
most exciting of all sports yet invent ~
ed by mankind to seperate the suck 10
er from his money; and forgetting n
for the moment by obligation as a =,
Christian gentleman, 1 forsook the NJ
prosaic path of rectitude to follow in A A
the serpentine and deeply beaten II
trail that leads eventually to de- -
graduation and humiliation. "
1 have noticed, Your Honor, in ~
every new city rising to power and ~
affluence in our great westland, as is
now the modern little City of Round ID
up, the spirit of chance penetrates 81
he very being of every enthusiastic, al
resident of such city. te
It seems as if the builder" is al OF
ways and ever a devotee of Dame III
Fortune, ready to stake his last dol
ar on his judgment that he may Wi
win; and, as would have you under We
tand, Your Honor, Roundup is pc
,laring exemplification of this time pc
lroven fact. TO
We arrived at the race-track, and at
TO