The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-07
MAN WHO COOKED, UP SHELBY PLOT STRANDED THERE
Sampson, For One, Is Paying Price Of Midsummer Mad
 ness Of MontananS
By WESTBROOK PEGLER neasea Wire to The Age-Herald)

Leasea Wire to The Age-Herald)
 MINOT, N. DAK., ON BOARD OR RENTAL LIMITED, July 6.-As Tommy Gibbons rolls across the northern prairies In the luxury of g private bungalow on wheels ac- claimed like a president at every stop, the man who first provoked Shelby's midsummer madness remains behind stranded in the appalling wreckage of boom town that backfired. Lyman Sampson of Pipestone, Minn., was the man with the original idea. Last February s he sent the telegram to Jack Kearns in New York offering $20O,000 for a fight. A friend In Shelby had asked him what was the best way to get Shelby into print and to call attention to the possibilities of oil there. Sampson replied py wire, prepaid, that the orthodox way to achieve that result for 8 small town was to offer a lot of money to a champion; the cost. he pointed out, would be no strain on the treas ury of the smallest community, being no more than the price of a telegram to Kearns in New York. sampson was authorized to make the offer' and he then wired kearns, prepaylns the message.
 These two telegrams, the one to the friend in Shelby and the second to Kearns in New York, were the first expenditures of an account which finally ran up to $l,6oo. samp- son took part in the early negotla- tons, paying his own railway lars and other expenses, being assured that he would be given snare or the profits, if any, and that In any case hia expenditures would De re- funded.
 Sampson sidetrncked.
 Sampson was sidetracked some where during the troubles of the pro motion. On the day of the fight ne was clerking in clothing store III Shelby. He went out to the arena to deliver a hat to d cowboy at the sdee and Mike Collins, the St. Paul pro moter who had two hands iull o5 bungling fingers in the pie, paSse'e pinwe's him into the arena with an empIoSe ticket Otherwise Sampson would not even have seen the fight lie was somewhere in the shadows or the railroad yard when Gibbons ana nls family and the last of the Nlsleois were getting out; sampson 9l n tha 5peIs game me nest egg of $1,000 early In the s@"s and went $6s7 into debt. eo,,,,,
 Ha has vowed to stay in Shelpv and clear it up by clerk1ng Tn the clothing store and then to qult .ne nlace forever with no deot 10 re- mind him or very S"o
 Chief curley Bear and President Wallace of the Blackfeet tribe were in the crowd that sped rom away N;a with war whoops and cowboy ylp- ping.
 Buns On Their Uppers.
 Tn the darkness there lurkea oroups of buns who clambereu eboard the blind baggage, the rods and the roofs of the Pullmans ana who have been dropping off at sta lions along the line for the last l-
 They were the last of an army or hard characters whom the railroad men in Shelby were glad to pc rlQ of. No effort was made to preEene their lamming out of the place. clinging to all parts of the cars.
 Gibbons and his wife ana three little boys, the latter attended py their swedish maid, Inga, had a dou- hle compartment on the train. rom fortune is now assured. He Will take is weeks of vaudeville work at three thousand- week. No more Will ne fight for mere pin money guaran- tees of five thousand. Every purse after this will mean another fiat building in St. Paul for rom GID hons.